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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






THE 



Voice of God m History. 



ROBEET POLLOK KERR, D. D., 

Author of " Peesbyteeianism for the People," and "The People' 
hlstoey of peesbyteeianism. " 




RICHMOND, VA.: 

Peesbyteeian Committee of Publication. 

189 0. 






COPIEIGHT 
BY 

James K. Hazen, Secretary of Publication, 
1890. 



Printed by 

Whtttet & Sheppebson, 

ElCHMOND, VA. 



Dedicated to 

Whose pure and gentle character has been, for four-score year:, a blessing 

and a Jieavenly witness in the world, ever brightening to the present 

time. The A uthor, who can remember no word of her 1 s which 

he would wish unspoken, nor deed -undone, and feeling 

that he can never repay the debt he owes tj 

her whom he is proud to call 

MOTHER, 

begs to lay this humble tribtite at her feet. 



PREFACE. 



"\T~EXT to the knowledge of God, the best study for 
-L 1 mankind is men. History, from one standpoint, 
is a record of the doings of men, and one learns the 
philosophy of humanity from the story of the race. 
From another standpoint, history is the study of God ; 
for the Divine Ruler has not left the world to itself, 
but is continually acting in it, bringing to pass his 
great designs. God is sovereign, and man free; and 
history r.ecords the divine and human as they move 
together in the world. In history, then, man learns 
God and himself. If this be true, there can be no 
more profitable study. The Bible itself, the Book of 
books, is history ; yes, history ; not naked annals, but 
lines of events as they stand related to certain great 
fundamental truths, glowing with the interest which 
attaches to the joys and sorrows of humanity, over- 
shadowed by an infinite love. Real history is the an- 
nals, the truths, and pathos of human existence com- 
bined ; in other words, it is the world's life lived over 
again. 



5 PKEFACE. 

The object of such study is that we may gain, with- 
out the cost of labor and tears, the results of other men's 
experience. "We shall be wise if we ponder the past; 
but the man who refuses to study history is beginning 
over again the experiments of the ages. He may learn 
by his own experience ; he will learn much ; but he 
ought to add to it, or, rather, adopt as a foundation 
for his own, the experience and wisdom of those who 
have gone before. The greatest dangers of our day 
lie in an ignorance or a rejection of the lessons of his- 
tory ; and the best safeguard of our cherished institu- 
tions, which are the objects of fierce attack, is, except 
the Holy Spirit and the Bible, a full knowledge of 
whence those great heritages came, and what it cost 
to win them. This knowledge must be disseminated 
among the masses of men. 

A gloomy view of human existence is prevalent, or 
well-nigh universal, that nations are born, gradually 
grow to maturity, and then fade away and die by the 
operation of an invariable law. It is sad, indeed, to 
think that our splendid civilization must decay and 
fall to ruin, like that of Egypt, Babylon, Greece and 
Rome; and that where are now our busy marts of 
commerce shall some day be wilderness, with nothing 
to remind men of the power and glory of a previous 
age but heaps of dust or ivy-covered ruins. Is this 
our destiny? Yes; unless we read history and heed 
its lessons. If nations sin grievously, they are pun- 



PREFACE. Y 

ished grievously, and punished in this world ; but if we 
are faithful to ourselves, our fathers, and our God, 
there need be no decay ; there will be none. If we re- 
peat the sins of other nations, we shall be punished as 
they have been ; but why should we not learn from 
their history, and avoid their errors ? To the end that 
the people may know the lessons of the past, let us 
give them histories, brief, but comprehensive, which 
they will have the time and the inclination to read. 
Let these histories not be mere outlines, but the link- 
ing together of causes and effects in the operation of 
certain natural laws, and under the divine government, 
as God leads the course of human events. Let us show 
men not only the facts of history, but also the whys 
and wherefores, and, above all, God in the midst of the 
world. There is a God in history ; let us listen to his 
voice. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

CHAPTEK I. 
From Paradise to Calvary, 13 



CHAPTER II. 

The Conquest of the Roman World for Christ, . 18 

CHAPTER III. 
Israel, 27 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Rise of the Papal Empire, 44 

CHAPTER Y. 
Monasticism, 56 

CHAPTER VI. 

Aurelius Augustine, the Most Influential Thinker 

since Paul, 65 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mohammed, a Travesty of Christ, .... 76 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Crusades : a Romance of Religion, ... 87 



10 CONTENTS. 

Page, 

CHAPTEE IX. 

The Dawn of the Reformation. — John Wickliffe, . 102 

CHAPTER X. 
John Iiuss, 110 

CHAPTER XI. 

Martin Luther, the Monumental Man, . . . 117 

CHAPTER XII. 

John Calvin, the Theologian of the Reformation, . 132 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Huguenots, 143 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Heroes of Holland, 153 

CHAPTER XV. 

John Knox, Scotland's Greatest Man, . . . 164 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Destruction of the Spanish Armada, . . . 173 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Puritans, 181 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Oliver Cromwell, 190 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Covenanters, 200 



CONTENTS. 11 

Page. 

CHAPTER XX 

John "Wesley and the Methodists, .... 208 

CHAPTER XXL 

The Establishment of Religion in the United States 

of Amekica, 218 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Protestantism and Liturgies, 230 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Churchship, . 2M 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Great Theophany, . » 250 

CHAPTER XXY. 
The Age of Missions, 256 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Church's Task, 272 



The Voice of God in History. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Yoice of God in History from Paradise to 
Calvary. 

~]VTO sooner had the ruin of sin begun in Paradise 
_1_ i than God came, and uttered a great promise, 
which mankind, as they left those happy fields, were 
to carry with them on their pilgrimage through the 
world. It was that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the head of Satan, or that a great Conqueror or 
Deliverer of men should at length arise to "save his 
people from their sins." God was going to show two 
things in history: first, the utter folly and failure of 
the experiment of sin ; and second, his own way of re- 
demption. 

The dread experiment of rebellion against the Most 
High, begun by Satan's temptation of Eve to take the 
forbidden fruit, was to have a full opportunity to show 
its results. If complete and universal salvation had 
supervened immediately upon man's first sin, and all 
the stupendous consequences of that step had been 
prevented except the shedding of a few tears by our 
guilty parents, the awful heinousness of sin would not 
have appeared. Sin was in the world, and must be 
allowed to work out its full significance before the 
eyes of an intelligent universe. 
2 13 



14 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

So Christ did not come for four thousand years. 
The promise was given, and all who believed in the 
Deliverer to come were saved. God would not that 
any should perish, and so the intention to send a Re- 
deemer was not kept secret. So far from being kept 
secret, it was heralded abroad to all men at the very 
fountain of the world's history. As is well known, 
many of the nations descending from the first pair lost 
the promise, but God selected one people, the Jews, 
whose very existence as a nation was to be an adver- 
tisement and a type of the coming King. The whole 
system of religion in the old economy was an elabora- 
tion of the promise of Eden, called the Protevangelium. 
i Every step in Jewish history was a sign pointing to 
the great Deliverer, and every ceremony of their re- 
ligion was a voice divine foretelling the glorious ad- 
vent. 

The heresy of all heresies is the lust for power. By 
this sin fell the angels, who were the first sinners, and 
all human iniquity has this for its background. "Ye 
shall be as gods " was what induced man to disobey. 
Let the universe see in the fallen angels and in the 
mournful annals of the race of man that the lust for 
power is only a source of evil and sorrow. Let earthly 
power combine and concentrate in great cities and em- 
pires, and what is the result? The frightful moral 
degradation which preceded the flood and God's ter- 
rible punishment of it answer. Let Babel speak, 
Nineveh, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Borne. Em- 
pire after empire was allowed to rise, wax great, and 
decline, without making men better. Power was to be 
permitted to try and fail. Not until "the world by 



FROM PARADISE TO. CALVARY. 15 

wisdom knew not God " was God by his Son going to 
save the world. 

The last aggregation of earthly power was the great- 
est one. The Roman empire exhausted the possibili- 
ties of worldly combination. The earth has seen no' 
more brilliant days than those of the glory of Rome. 
Rome had all the learning, the wealth, the military re- 
sources of the known world. What Rome could not 
do cquld not be done by worldly power. After all, the 
greatest product of any civilization is the men it pro- 
duces, and the best test of its development is its re- 
ligion. Religion is the expression of man's moral and 
spiritual ideal. A nation's religion is the best thing it 
knows. What kind of men did imperial Rome pro- 
duce, and what were their religious ideals? Caesar, 
Pompey, Pilate, and the rest answer the first, while 
Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Yenus, Cupid, and the host of 
gods and goddesses which filled the ancient sky give 
answer to the second. 

After four thousand years of fruitless experiment 
the world was a failure. It could not make a man or 
imagine a god. Failure was written all over the face 
of history from Eden to the cradle of Bethlehem. 
Then Christ came, the perfect man and the perfect re- 
ligion. 

The infatuation of power permeated the Jewish na- 
tion at the time of our Lord's advent. The Messiah 
they desired was one who would overthrow the thral- 
dom of Rome and establish a universal Jewish empire. 
Deliverance from sin was the last thing they dreamed 
of. They hugged sin, and longed for the dominion of 
the world. To "repent" was contrary to all their 



16 THE VOICE. OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

ideals, and to "lay up treasure" in another world en- 
tered not into their plans. 

The birth of Christ was one of the greatest of all 
disappointments. Instead of another and a greater 
Caesar, we see a "man of sorrows ;" instead of a war- 
rior, we behold one whose symbol is a lamb, and who 
said, " Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, 
turn to him the other also." His kingdom " was not 
from hence," was " not of this world ;" it was of all the 
■universe, and this earth was but a grain of dust upon 
its floor. He was establishing an empire to contain 
the universe, but it was spiritual. No helmetted le- 
gions were to tramp the continents at his command. 
The emancipation of humanity from sin was his 
scheme, and to make men new creatures. The great 
atonement was to be made on Calvary by submission 
unto death, and then the Holy Ghost was to apply it 
to men's hearts in every age and clime. 

What a simple but sublime scene was the birth of 
Christ, in the little town of Bethlehem ! Among the 
poor he lay, even with the beasts of the stall. The 
world knew him not, but heaven did. The stars told 
the secret to the astrologers of the east, and the angels 
informed the Judean shepherds, singing a natal hymn. 

The simple, unobtrusive life of Jesus has revolution- 
ized the earth. It was " a still small voice," but it was 
God's voice, and it has sounded down the avenues of 
time to the present as the prevalent force of all forces. 
The eternal "Word" was spoken then, and it can never 
cease. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." It 
sounded in such tones as these : " It is not by might, 
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." "If 



FROM PARADISE TO CALVARY. 17 

any man will be great among vou, let liim be your ser- 
vant." " If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself and take np his cross and follow me." " Bles- 
sed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly 
of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 

Millions have heard his voice and come to him, and 
the whole earth shall do it. This is the mission of 
time itself, to bring a penitent, believing world to cast 
itself at Jesus' feet. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Conquest of the Roman "World for Christ. 

ONE of the most remarkable phenomena in the his- 
tory of mankind is the rapidity with which Chris- 
tianity displaced heathenism in the first four centuries 
of our era. 

Jesus of Nazareth was a poor man, unlettered in hu- 
man arts and sciences, so far as the world could see, 
belonging to a conquered race, and yet in his short 
public career of three years he established an organi- 
zation, with certain unworldly truths, principles, and 
forms, which soon became the ruling power of the 
whole earth. After a brief period of public teaching, 
during which he gathered a handful of humble men 
about himself, he was ignominiously executed as a 
malefactor ; and though his friends declared that he 
arose miraculously from the dead, and during forty 
days appeared often to them, which testimony many 
of them confirmed at the cost of their lives, yet the 
world henceforth saw him not. Then began that con- 
tinued miracle of the onward march of Christ's king- 
dom, overrunning a hostile world, which is not one whit 
less marvellous than the miraculous deeds attributed 
to him during his life. If any man could disprove the 
opening of the eyes of the blind, the healing of the 
lame, the deaf, the sick, the raising of the dead, and 
the resurrection of the Lord himself, he would still 

18 



CONQUEST OF THE ROMAN WORLD FOR CHRIST. 19 

have left the impossible task of showing how Chris- 
tianity conquered the world by natural causes. One 
cannot fail to hear, if he will but honestly listen, the 
voice of the Almighty in the gospel of Christ, and to 
recognize in it "the power of God unto salvation." 

The whole world was against the humble men whom 
Jesus sent out to preach to all nations. The Jews, 
out of whose religion and national history the new 
doctrines came, despised them, and hunted their Au- 
thor to death. The heathen priesthood of all Gentile 
nations were opposed to Christianity from the very in- 
stinct of self-preservation. The splendid literature of 
Greece, Rome and Egypt had hallowed with all elo- 
quence, statesmanship and poetry the worship of the 
mythological gods. Every temple, every tomb, every 
great victory in war, every noble achievement in peace, 
all their glorious history, were indissolubly associated 
with those deities which were supposed to rule the 
affairs of this world and the next. What a colossal 
undertaking, to displace all this crystallized, chiselled, 
beautiful fiction with a new and despised religion! 
Who could put the gospel in the room of Sibylline 
books, the Lord's supper in place of the Saturnalia, 
the cross before the Roman eagle, and seat Christ on 
the throne of Jupiter as universal King in the faith 
and affections of the world? Who could do it? No 
one that is human. To propose it would be to an- 
nounce one's self a madman. But it was done ; done 
quickly, done in the face of the combined opposition 
of the whole world. Who did it? Man? No! Not 
man ; not even John, James, Peter, Paul. God did it. 
All reason and common sense declare it. Christianity 



20 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

proclaims Christ as divine, and Lis gospel as the yoice 
op God ix history. 

The work was effected in less than four hundred 
years. By that time the Roman empire, the civilized 
world, had accepted Christ, and Christianity was the 
established religion of the nations. The five causes 
assigned by Gibbon as having produced this mighty 
. change are utterly insufficient in themselves to account 
for such a result : (1), The inflexible and intolerant 
zeal of Christians; (2), The doctrine of immortality 
improved by every additional circumstance that could 
give weight and efficacy to that important truth ; (3), 
The miraculous power ascribed to the primitive church ; 
(4), The pure and austere morals of the Christians; (5), 
The union and discipline of the Christian republic, 
which gradually formed an independent religious state 
in the heart of the Roman empire. These were fitting 
accompaniments of the power of the new religion. But 
did they produce Christianity, or did Christianity pro- 
duce them? Christ implanted these in the hearts of a 
few, and sent them to preach the gospel, while he went 
with them working miracles of grace in the lives of the 
millions of earth. It requires something more than 
mere moral principles to transform a brutal, lustful, 
cruel heathen into a loving, self-denying Christian ; to 
regenerate the hideous criminality of ancient Borne 
into the genial blessedness of the communion of saints. 
Infidel writers would fain prove that Christianity is the 
voice of man, his best voice, and highest teaching ; but 
the verdict of history, honestly read, will be that that 
which has done more for the advancement of the hu- 
man race than all other causes combined is nothing 



CONQUEST OF THE ROMAN WORLD FOR CHRIST. 21 

less than the voice of God, which carries with it at 
once the authority to command and the willingness and 
the ability to obey. 

The work of preaching the gospel in " all the world," 
and "to every creature," was begun by the apostles 
and other immediate followers of our divine Lord. 
The most aggressive, the most statesman-like, and the 
strongest in all that goes to constitute a missionary, 
was the character of the Apostle Paul. No greater 
man has lived since Moses. He was the evangelist of 
Europe and Asia. His industry, his devotion to the 
glory of God and the welfare of man, his organizing 
power, his splendid writings, give him a right to stand 
at the very highest pinnacle of human greatness. The 
place and the circumstances of his death are not cer- 
tainly known, but it is probable that the city of Rome 
saw his last days and witnessed his martyrdom. The 
New Testament, though it exalts the agency of noble 
men like Paul, and honors them, does not pretend to 
give their histories with completeness or with minute- 
ness of detail. These matters are only incidental, how- 
ever great and noble. The end and aim of the book is 
to exalt Christ, and no one can be for a moment ad- 
mitted to competition with him. Christianity is not 
Pauline, nor Petrine, nor Johannic ; it is Christ, all 
Christ, and nothing more. We know almost nothing 
about the deaths of the apostles; not one of their 
graves is marked ; they came and went before the per- 
son of Christ, shining in his light, and when their -work 
was done they passed away, leaving always with us the 
glorious presence of our ever-living Lord. 

After the disappearance of the apostles from the 



22 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

scene of history, certain influential disciples of theirs, 
called "fathers" by the grateful church, succeeded as 
the leaders of thought and enterprise. They had no 
more authority than any other preachers of the word. 
The ministry had but one rank, and in " every church " 
were ordained ruling elders, to whom, together with 
the pastor or teaching elder, was committed the gov- 
ernment of the body. The polity of the Christian 
church was no new organization. It was the ecclesi- 
astical system of the church of God from the begin- 
ning, with the temple and sacrificial, or typical, service 
left out, because Christ had fulfilled it, and nothing 
more. The order of bishops, as now understood in 
prelatical churches, was a later growth upon the an- 
cient simplicity of the Christian republic. 

The early " fathers" of the church were Clement of 
Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp. Two others are classed 
as " apostolic fathers," or fathers who had been per- 
sonally acquainted with the apostles, but they are 
known only as the authors respectively of the Shepherd 
of Hermes and the Epistle of Barnabas. After these, 
down to the year of the Council of Nice, 325 A. D., 
came those who are called ante-Nicene fathers, Iren- 
seus, Justin Martyr, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, 
Cyprian, Tertullian, and Gregory Thaumaturgiis. 
Among the " post-Nicene fathers " may be mentioned 
Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Chrysostom, 
Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril of Alexandria, Epiphanius, 
Gregory Nanzianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the 
Great, Hilary, Jerome, and Leo. 

It will at once be inferred from this subdividing of 
early Christian history with reference to the Council at 



CONQUEST OF THE ROMAN WORLD FOR CHRIST. 23 

Nice in 325 A. D., that this was a most important 
event in the annals of the church, and so it was. Per- 
haps it is not too much to call this the most important 
assembly ever held in the church. Christianity had 
by that time ceased to be the despised religion of a 
small sect. The days of persecution were about over. 
No longer were Christians to expire in extended tor- 
ture on crosses, to be devoured by wild beasts for the 
amusement of the Koman populace. It was fast be- 
coming the greatest of all forces amongst men. It had 
made its way by rapid advances to almost every part 
of the known world. The mightiest were not ashamed 
to bear its name. The emperor of the world was about 
to assume the banner of the cross. The conversion of 
Constantine was the most momentous event in the his- 
tory of Christianity after the ascension of Christ, be- 
cause it marked the end of the epoch of persecution, 
and the beginning of the period of trouble from within 
the body of the church itself. Constantine's father, 
Constantius Chlorus, was favorable to Christianity, 
though he died as he had lived, a heathen. Constan- 
tine, his son, called " The Great," was a man of splendid 
physical appearance and of uncommon mental endow- 
ments, though thoroughly immoral. He consolidated 
the divided empire under himself, and established his. 
power so firmly as to leave in the field no rival aspi- 
rant for the throne. His keen statesman-like sagacity 
showed to him that Christianity, as a moral and politi- 
cal force in his dominions, could not be ignored. As 
a spiritual power it is doubtful that he ever understood 
it. He had been accustomed to contact with this re- 
ligion all his life, and knew its wonderful history. He 



24 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

saw that it was going to take the world, and therefore 
he determined to attach it to his crown, and to rise it 
to strengthen his power over men. So he suddenly 
became "converted" to Christianity. He professed to 
have been called, as was fitting in one so great as him- 
self, by a sign from God in the sky. It was considered 
worth heaven's while to show a radiant vision in the 
firmament to win the emperor of the world. So Con- 
stantine declared that he was converted by seeing a 
shining cross in heaven bearing the significant inscrip- 
tion, in Greek, "By this sign thou shalt conquer." 
Eusebius first mentions this alleged miracle. At all 
events, Constantine became a Christian, whether from 
policy or some other higher motive, and the world 
began to march behind the banner of the cross. In 
312 and 313 he issued edicts, the first from Rome and 
the second from Milan, giving Christians perfect lib- 
erty and protection, the official recognition of the state, 
and reparation of previously incurred losses. In 321 
A. D. he ordered Sunday {dies solis) to be observed as 
a universal day of rest. His conversion cannot have 
been at this time, however, very thorough, for upon 
his coins he had engraved, on one side, the name of 
Christ, and upon the other a figure of the god Apollo. 
Moreover, the same year in which he issued the Sun- 
day decree he gave orders that if any public building 
were struck by lightning "the haruspices should be 
consulted, according to ancient usage, as to what 
it might signify, and a careful report of the an- 
swer should be drawn up for his use." He is held 
responsible for some base crimes, also, long after he 
embraced the new religion. Constantine must have 



CONQUEST OF THE ROMAN WORLD FOR CHRIST. 25 

credit for liis courage and genius for statesmanship. 
Perhaps no monarch has arisen in the Christian era 
whose government has been followed, by more far- 
reaching consequences. He was the founder of the 
complex- political system which exists among all civil- 
ized nations at the present day, by which the civil, 
the military and the religious departments are sepa- 
rated and held distinct. The very idea of such dis- 
tinctions was, before Constantine, unknown. He saw 
in Christianity the strongest political and social, as 
well as religious, agent that has ever affected the des- 
iinies of mankind, and as such he adopted it for his 
government, though he was not baptized until just 
before his death, in 337, and then by an Arian (Uni- 
tarian) bishop. 

Constantine was greatly troubled by the bitter con- 
troversies which were continually waged in the church. 
Christian students of the Bible did not agree as to 
the doctrines taught therein, and the science of the- 
ology, which many centuries afterwards became so 
well denned and systematic, was in its original state of 
chaos. The great question of that time was as to the 
divinity of Christ — whether Christ had the same na- 
ture with God, or a similar nature. The emperor sum- 
moned an oecumenical council in Nice Bithynia in 
325 to settle this question, and to state the belief of 
the church. Arius denied the divinity of our Lord, 
and the system of doctrine represented by that denial 
has ever since been termed Arianism. Athanasius 
was the great opponent of Arius, and the Athanasian 
creed, still used in many churches, was attributed to 
him. The council decided that Christ was divine, and 
3 



26 THE VOICE OE GOD IN HISTORY. 

stated the doctrine in strong terms, requiring ail to ac- 
cept it. Arius was banished, and the circulation of 
Arian writings was made a capital offence by procla- 
mation of the emperor. 

This was the beginning of theology as a human 
science, and it was logical that at first the most funda- 
mental of all doctrines should be carefully formulated. 
The Christian church has never receded from the po- 
sition of the Nicene fathers on the doctrine of the 
divinity and eternity of Christ. 

It would not be w^ell to close this first chapter of 
the Christian church's history without calling attention 
to the fact that the conversion of Constantine, and the 
adoption of Christianity by the government, was the 
beginning and fruitful source of untold harm to re- 
ligion. The church has always lost spiritual power by 
contact with the state ; the bride of Christ should never 
lean upon the arm of Caesar. From the day of Con- 
stantine's adoption of Christianity as the religion of 
the empire, dates the beginning of its decadence in 
that force which the Holv Ghost alone confers. 



CHAPTEE III. 

Israel. 

THE most illustrious of all races, historically, are 
tho Jews. They are so because they are the 
chosen people of God, because they have given to 
civilization its moral and civil institutions, and because 
they have furnished to the world a Saviour. Theirs 
has been a most remarkable history. Called of God 
at the beginning, they have been divinely protected, 
favored and guided through the revolutions of thou- 
sands of years. They have come through what would 
have destroyed any other nation, going on from age to 
age, and for the last two millenniums from land to land, 
like the " Wandering Jew" of fable, possessed of a 
deathless life. They are the only people who seem to 
have attained an earthly immortality, and that are now 
without a city, a country, or a home. 

The Jews are a perpetual miracle. It is impossible 
to account for their history or their present national 
existence except by granting a divine intervention in 
their behalf. They are the gulf stream of humanity. 
The waves of revolution come and go, but this nar- 
row current flows on in the sea, and yet independent 
of the sea, obedient to an impulse felt by no other 
people, and peculiarly its own. There can be no 
shadow of doubt but that this impulse is divine. A 
king of Prussia is said to have asked his chaplain for 

27 



28 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

the best argument to prove the divinity of the Bible, 
and his answer was, "The Jews." The answer is a 
good one. The correspondence between the history 
of the Jews and the prophecies concerning them in 
the Scriptures is a miracle, and revelation is a mira- 
cle. If there ever was a voice of God in history it 
has been in the annals of this wonderful race. 

The history of God's chosen people down to the 
close of the Old Testament canon is too well known 
to need rewriting ; but from that period to the present 
their varied experiences, full of interest and instruc- 
tion, are comparatively unknown among Christians. 
Aside from mere historical curiosity, there is every 
reason why we should be familiar with the post- 
biblical history of the Jews. Nothing like a complete 
review, even in outline, can be given in a work like 
this ; but still it is hoped that what is set down here 
may serve as an incentive to further research into 
what is the most remarkable of all histories. In this 
case, more than in any other, may be seen exempli- 
fied that common adage, "truth is stranger than fic- 
tion." 

"When Nehemiah returned to Palestine, the country 
was a province of the Persian empire, and it so con- 
tinued for one hundred years, until 336 B. C, when Alex- 
ander the Great became master of the eastern world. 
"While engaged with the business of reducing Tyre, the 
potent Greek sent messengers to Jerusalem to collect 
tribute. Troops and provisions were both refused to 
the conqueror on the ground of loyalty to the Persian 
government. Tyre subdued, Alexander came down to 
Jerusalem to chastise these hardy Jews for disobeying 



ISRAEL. 29 

his orders. But the high-priest, with a prudence 
which would have done honor to father Jacob, organ- 
ized a procession of priests, himself at their head, all 
dressed in the impressive vestments of their order, 
went out to meet him who was regarded as the terror 
of the world, and humbly besought his clemency. It 
is recorded by historians of their nation that the Jews 
were so successful in this wise measure as not only to 
placate the wrath of Alexander, but also to gain his 
favor; and the conqueror, joining the company, pro- 
ceeded at the side of Jaddua the high-priest to Je- 
rusalem, where he ordered sacrifices to be offered in 
the temple. He granted his new subjects full liberty 
of religion and remitted for them the taxes of every 
seventh year. So grateful were the Jews, it is declared, 
that every man-child born during the year of the con- 
quest was named Alexander. 

But the conqueror of the world died not many years 
afterward, 323 B. C, and in the division of his vast 
dominions among his generals, Syria and Judea fell to 
Seleucus Nicator. This new master was kind to his 
subjects, but after a time dissensions arose among the 
rulers of the small principalities, and Judea fell under 
the power of Egypt. It was during the period of Egyp- 
tian rule that Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, is reported to 
have found a copy of the Hebrew Bible in his library, 
and that, being greatly desirous of acquainting himself 
with its contents, he arranged for its translation into 
Greek, which was the universal language of the cul- 
tured people of the day. He sent a letter, accompanied 
with costly gifts, to the high-priest Eleazar in Jerusa- 
lem, requesting that he select a number of learned men, 



30 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

who, under his direction, might rewrite the Scriptures 
in a language which all could understand. Seventy- 
two men were at once sent down to Alexandria, and 
the work was successfully accomplished. That trans- 
lation was called the Septuagint, which means seventy, 
and came into general use, our Lord himself quoting 
from it repeatedly. It has come down to our times, 
and may be found in the libraries of nearly all scholars 
at this day. 

The Egyptian kings were not all so considerate as 
Philadelphus. Philopator insulted the Jews on their 
most Sensitive point — their religion. The affront was 
resented, and so great was the animosity engendered 
that on a convenient occasion, under Ptolemy V., Epi- 
phanes, the Jews allowed themselves, with feeble resist- 
ance, to be taken by the Syrians, and their country to 
become a Syrian province. Antiochus, their new king, 
was a lineal descendant of Seleucus Nicator, under 
whose sway they had enjoyed peace and prosperity 
long before. During several reigns all went well, but 
when Antiochus IV., called Epiphanes (the Illustrious), 
or Epimanes (the Madman), acceded to the crown, he 
persecuted the unfortunate people, who had already 
endured so much, beyond anything they had hitherto 
suffered. He fell upon the holy city, robbed the tem- 
ple, forbade all worship of God, swine were sacrificed, 
and all Jews were required to apostatize or die. Thou- 
sands of faithful ones were put to death in the most 
ignominious manner and with the most horrible tor- 
tures. Among the rest were a pious mother, Hannah, 
and her seven sons. She was compelled to witness 
their deaths one after another, in the most excruciating 



ISRAEL. 31 

agonies, as she exclaimed, " O my sons, tell your Fa- 
ther in heaven that Abraham was willing to bring his 
one son as an offering, but I have given seven." Then 
she herself followed them into the other world, breath- 
ing praises to God until her voice became silent in 
death. 

The atrocities of that reign brought forth their natu- 
ral fruits, and a rebellion broke out under a heroic 
family of the Hasmonean race residing at Modin, near 
Jerusalem. Matthias and his five sons were com- 
manded to introduce idolatry into their town. But 
they refused, and the father returned answer : " I and 
my house shall remain faithful to our God." Seeing a 
Jew about to worship at a heathen altar, the aged Mat- 
thias slew him on the spot. This was the signal for a 
general uprising. Matthias and his sons, calling to 
their aid a few faithful ones, betook themselves to a 
stronghold of the mountains. From this fortress they 
made desultory attacks upon the Syrians. On their 
flag was inscribed in Hebrew the words, " Who is like 
unto thee among the mighty, O God?" Before the 
father died he appointed Simon to be counsellor and 
Juda general of the force. Well did the latter de- 
serve the trust. He was a lion in battle, and long did 
he keep up the unequal contest. At last, in a contest 
with tens of thousands of the enemy, his own force be- 
ing only eight hundred, he fell, an immortal hero. He 
was carried from, the field amid wailings and lamenta- 
tions, and tenderly buried in Modin. Juda Maccabi 
was a man of heroic mould, and merits the esteem in 
which he has ever been held by his admiring nation. 
He was the noblest of the Maccabees. 



32 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

The cause consecrated by the blood of Juda ulti- 
mately triumphed under his brother Simon, and the 
full independence of Judea was regained, for the first 
time since the destruction of the temple and the con- 
quest of the nation by Nebuchadnezzar. This glorious 
result was attained, however, only after twenty-five 
years of bloody warfare. A new era now began, the 
Sinionean replacing the Seleucedian, and it continued 
one hundred and sixty-five years, from 311 to 146 B. C. 
Simon called into existence the famous court of the 
Sanhedrim, of which so much is heard in later history. 
During this period the Old Testament Apocrypha (ex- 
cluded writings) were written. They were the product 
of the degenerate religious condition of the people at 
that day. 

After the death of Simon, his son, John Hyrcanos, 
so called from his having defeated Kendebaias the 
Hyrcanian, became prince and high-priest. Under 
his rule the nation prospered greatly, and extended 
its domain until it approximated the glory of Solo- 
mon's reign. He held the reins of government thirty- 
one years, and died after becoming a Sadducee, be- 
queathing his crown to his wife, and the priestly oflice 
to one of his sons, Aristobulus. This son was ambi- 
tious of holding both offices, and to secure the crown 
he resorted t0 the most brutal measures. He im- 
prisoned all his brothers except one, and caused his 
mother to perish with hunger. His wife, Salome, up- 
held him in his vile schemes, and at length persuaded 
him to have his brother, Antigonus, executed. His 
reign lasted but one year, when he died overwhelmed 
with remorse. Salome, now a widow, had one of her- 



ISEAEL. 33 

imprisoned brothers-in-law released, that she might 
marry him and make him prince. This Alexander 
Janai and his hateful queen ruled with a high hand. 
Being Sadducees, they persecuted the Pharisees, and 
caused eight hundred of them to be put to death. 
Salome survived her second husband, and reigned in 
his stead after his death, espousing then the cause of 
the Pharisees. Since her marriage with Alexander 
she had called herself Alexandra, and continued under 
this name until her own demise. She appointed one 
of her sons, Hyrcanos II., prince and high-priest, but 
Aristobulus, his brother, rebelled, and drove him from 
power. After three years of peace, Antipater, an 
Idumean, instigated Hyrcanos to attempt to regain his 
lost honors. In his dilemma, Aristobulus applied to 
Pompey, the Roman, for help. This wily general 
thought it more to his advantage to side with Hyrcanos, 
and haying espoused his cause, marched upon Jerusa- 
lem and took it, at the expense of twelve thousand 
lives on the Jewish side. The temple service was not 
interrupted nor religion interfered with, but Hyrcanos 
was made an Ethnarch, and ruled his country subject 
to Rome. Aristobulus was carried to the imperial city 
to grace the conqueror's triumph. Thus Judea lost 
its independence forever by the feud between the two 
brothers, and became a province of the Roman em- 
pire. Hyrcanos, never of a vigorous mind, soon be- 
came enfeebled by advancing years, and was glad to 
relinquish his honors and responsibilities into the 
hands of his wily friend, Antipater the Idumean, who 
succeeded in gaining the favor of Rome and of its 
rising star, Julius C?esar. 



34 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Antipater had one of his sons, Herod, appointed 
governor of Galilee. This introduces one whose name 
is familiar to all, for he crossed the brilliant light of 
sacred story, and by his craftiness succeeded in making 
himself ruler of all Judea. Herod was a man of strong 
will, but stronger passions. He married Mariamne, the 
beautiful grand-daughter of Hyrcanos II., and caused 
the death of the aged and deposed prince. He had 
Mariamne's sixteen-year-old brother ignominiously 
drowned. For this act he was summoned to Borne, to 
defend himself before a tribunal. Bribing his judges, 
he was acquitted. Salome, his worthy sister, during 
his absence, made good use of her time by having 
every member of the Hasmonean family put to death, 
except one, a young child, who was mysteriously pre- 
served. 

Before Herod went away to Borne he instructed 
one of his court, that in case he were condemned and 
executed, Mariamne was also to be put to death lest 
she might become the wife of another. The man who 
was intrusted with these affectionate arrangements be- 
trayed his secret to Mariamne. On her lord's return, 
she naturally received him with a little coldness. This 
did not escape the watchful eye of Salome, who poisoned 
Herod's wolfish brain with jealousy. He therefore 
had her put to death while in a frenzy of rage, greatly 
to his own bitterest anguish after it was done. There 
is no doubt but that Herod loved his beautiful Mari- 
amne, but jealousy in a man like Herod is an unreason- 
ing monster when it is aroused. Some time after this, 
the Sanhedrim being opposed to him, he had the whole 
body, except two, summarily executed. 



ISRAEL. 35 

He appointed and removed high-priests at his plea- 
sure, and endeavored to amalgamate the Jews and 
heathens. In honor of the Roman emperor he' built 
Coesarea, erected theatres for gladiatorial combats, and, 
in defiance of the feelings of the Jews, he planted the 
standard of the Roman eagle at the door of the temple. 
In his seventieth year he died, amidst the most horri- 
ble anguish of body and soul, having given orders that 
one of his sons should be killed, and commanding his 
sister, that there might be mourners at his funeral, to 
get all the nobles of the land together and have them 
murdered at Jericho. This was never done; but on 
the day of his death the nation gave itself up to un- 
restrained joy; and the anniversary of this event was 
observed with demonstrations of gladness for a long 
time afterwards. 

It was during the dark night of this monarch's reign 
that the star of Bethlehem arose in calm brightness 
upon the world. In a Jewish history, published in the 
last decade in the United States, this momentous event 
is stated in a parenthesis : " (About the last year of 
Herod's reign, Jesus, the^ founder of the Christian re- 
ligion, was born at Nazareth, of Jewish parents)." 

Herod had all the little children in Bethlehem, which 
we know was the true place of the Saviour's birth, put 
to death, that this new rival might certainly be put out 
of the way, as so many others had been, by this beast 
enthroned. But " he that sitteth in the heavens shall 
laugh. . . . Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of 
Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto 
me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee." 

After the demise of Herod, there was so much dis- 



36 THE TOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

satisfaction in Palestine that it was thought best in 
Eome to divide the country into sections, and place 
the reins of government in the hands of procurators. 
Pontius Pilate was one of these officials, and is de- 
scribed by a Jewish historian as " one of those demons 
in human form who mercilessly trampled upon the 
most sacred feelings of the people" ; and he states that 
to this cruel Roman "life, property and honor were 
alike of no consideration." 

Florus, who afterwards filled the office of procurator, 
carried his cruelties to such an extreme that the pa- 
tience of the people became exhausted, and a rebellion 
broke out against the Roman occupation of the country. 
Nero, who was at that time emperor of Rome, sent his 
general, Vespasian, to quell the revolt. The decisive 
battle was fought at Jotapata, a fortress of Galilee. 
The place was heroically defended by the Jews, forty 
thousand of whom lost their lives. Flavius Joseph us, 
the celebrated historian, was in command. "When the 
final overthrow came, Josephus and forty other men 
fled for refuge to a cave. He asked them to surrender 
to the Romans, but they refused, and decided to die. 
Josephus acquiesced, and it was determined by lot who 
were to be the victims and who the executioner. He 
managed so that himself and one other were spared to 
the last, whereupon they betook themselves to Vespa- 
sian, who pardoned them and gave them presents, 

Vespasian returned to Rome to receive the imperial 
crown, and sent Titus to complete the subjugation of 
Judea. In the spring of the year 70 A. D., Titus 
marched upon Jerusalem. The most obstinate resist- 
ance was made on the part of the inhabitants. They 



ISRAEL, 37 

held out until famine filled the streets with dead bodies, 
and even then the Zealots — the party in power — re- 
fused to surrender, though urged to do so by many of 
the best citizens. The Romans were maddened to fury 
by the obstinacy of the inhabitants. Pestilence, aris- 
ing from the putrefying corpses, now added to the hor- 
rors of the siege. The Romans at last set fire to a 
tower filled with wood, which, standing near the wall, 
communicated the flames to the city. The wall was 
broken, and the enemy rushed in. Only one thing the 
Jews now hoped to save, the sanctuary of the Lord. 
But it was in vain ; a soldier carried a torch to the 
temple, and the glory of Jerusalem became a heap, of 
ashes. It is recorded that fully one million lives were 
lost in this catastrophe, and a hundred thousand Is- 
raelites were sold into slavery. 

Titus returned to Rome, taking with him not only 
hosts of captives, but the holy vessels of the temple, 
to carry through the streets in his triumphal proces- 
sion. A coin was struck off commemorating the con- 
quest, and on it were the figure of a widow weep- 
ing under a palm tree, and an inscription, "Juclea 
Capta." 

This was the end of the history of the Jews as an 
independent nation. From that time they have been 
scattered over the face of the earth, a people with their 
own religion, language and customs, but without a 
country. But for the direct interposition of God in 
their behalf, they would long ago have been absorbed 
by the nations among whom they have sojourned. In 
the year 130 A. D., a man named Simon assumed to 
be the Messiah and Saviour of Israel. He called him- 



38 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

self "Bar Cocliba" or "Son of the Star." Many 
nocked to his standard, bnt after a few successes the 
scheme failed, and one hundred thousand men, among 
whom "was Bar Cocliba himself, fell as victims of Ro- 
man vengeance. 

The Jews, suffering under the fires of persecution, 
fled to India, Persia, China, Africa, and many por- 
tions of Europe. In Moslem countries, after the 
crescent had risen among the nations, the Jews were 
comparatively safe and happy, but in Christian lands 
their life was made a burden. From the eleventh cen- 
tury to the sixteenth was the darkest period for this 
unhappy race. Roman Catholicism was its inveterate 
foe. In Germany especially were they most cruelly 
dealt with. At one time (1182) in France all their 
money was taken from them and they were driven 
from the country. In Magdeburg, Germany, 1261, on 
the Feast of Tabernacles, the archbishop had all the 
wealthy Jews arrested, and required for their ransom 
the sum of one hundred thousand marks. Under 
Louis IY., in France they were sold from hand to hand, 
like cattle. In England they were sometimes pro- 
tected, then oppressed; now banished and now re- 
called. Cromwell favored them, and during his pro- 
tectorate they were allowed to live in peace. In some 
parts of Europe they were forced to become Roman 
Catholics; and when they refused, as many of them 
did, they were put to death. The sufferings of the 
Jews in Spain baffle description. There it was death or 
baptism into the Catholic communion. The Inquisi- 
tion, a name that is written on the page of history in 
letters of blood, did its worst upon them, as also upon 



ISEAEL. 39 

Protestants. Thomas Torquemada, the great Inquisi- 
tor, succeeded, during the reign of Ferdinand V. and 
Isabella, in having an edict promulgated by which all 
the Jews were required to leave the country within 
four months. Don Isaac Abarbauel, a celebrated 
Hebrew scholar, prostrated himself before the queen, 
imploring her to revoke the cruel decree of banish- 
ment. He offered the king the princely sum of thirty 
thousand ducats towards defraying the expenses of 
the wars against the Moors. During this audience 
Torquemada entered the royal presence, and throwing 
a crucifix upon the table, exclaimed angrily, "Judas 
Iscariot sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver; 
your majesties are about to do it for thirty thousand 
ducats; here he is; take him and barter him away!'* 
This decided the fate of the Jews, and the decree was 
enforced. About three hundred thousand of them 
were obliged to leave their homes, and they fled to 
Africa, Italy, Turkey and Portugal. Many thousands 
of them died from sickness and starvation. Those 
who took refuge in Portugal were driven from that 
kingdom also by King Emanuel, whose mother-in-law, 
Isabella of Spain, threatened to disown him if he al- 
lowed the hated race to remain in his dominions. 

After the eleventh century the governments of Ger- 
many, France and Italy found it expedient to have the 
Jews live in certain streets or quarters of cities, in 
order that they might be comparatively secure against 
the attacks of the ignorant and priest-ridden populace. 
The neighborhoods thus assigned were called "Jews* 
quarters " or Ghettos. They were also required to 
wear a degrading badge or peculiar garment, to dis- 



40 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

tinguish them wherever they went. As late as the 
time of Frederick William of Prussia the Jews residing 
in his dominion were obliged to wear green hats. 

"The cause of all these horrors," writes a Jewish 
historian, "was by no means the teaching of Christian- 
ity, which recommends love to every one, but the ig- 
norance, coarseness, and animal passions of fanatic 
priests and mobs. Yet there were at all times, and in 
all countries, laymen, clergymen, scholars, and poets 
among Christians, who warmly espoused the cause of 
the Jews and protected them. Amid all their troubles 
the Jews had the gratification to know that their 
friends were always among the best of the land." 
Among those who have favored the Jews may be men- 
tioned Charlemagne, who granted them not only lib- 
erty, but the privilege of holding public office. Louis 
the Pious created an office, "Magister Judaeorum," 
the occupant of which was to administer the affairs of 
the Hebrew people. His physician was a Jew, and in 
order that these people, who considered the seventh 
day sacred, might have opportunity to worship God, he 
changed the weekly market days. Henry IY. protected 
the Jews, and punished those who did them an injury. 
Several of the kings of Spain were favorable to them. 
Peter the Great of Russia, and King Christian and his 
wife of Sweden, were their friends. At least two of 
the popes, Gregory IX. and Innocent IY., espoused 
their cause. The Protestants, who had suffered so 
much and who had contended for human liberty, were 
generally friendly to Israel. Conspicuous among them 
were John Calvin and Martin Luther. The latter wrote 
on their persecutions as follows : " Our fools, the pa- 



ISRAEL. 41 

» 

pists, bishops and monks, have hitherto treated the 
Jews so shamefully that any good Christian might 
wish to become a Jew. They have dealt with them as 
one deals with a dog, not with a human being. They 
are blood relatives, brothers of our Lord. I beg of 
"the papists, if they are tired of calling me heretic, that 
they begin to nickname me a Jew." 

The sufferings of the Jews did not exterminate their 
national spirit nor their devotion to Judaism, and 
wherever they had opportunity to compete with Chris- 
tians, they showed themselves no mean rivals in litera- 
ture, business, poetry, statesmanship, art, or science. 
In every one of these departments Jewish names stand 
high, and will ever shine. They are patient, laborious, 
frugal, patriotic, shrewd, and virtuous. They show 
not the slightest disposition to interfere with others in 
the exercise of their religion, and by their beautiful 
homa life set an example to many who have been ac- 
customed to look down upon them. 

Perhaps the greatest scholar the Jewish race has 
produced during post-biblical times was Eabbi Moses 
ben Maimon, more generally called Maimonides. He 
w^as born in Cordova, March 30, 1135. He was a 
great instructor of his people, and among other things 
he taught them that the enmity of the Gentiles was 
long ago predicted by Daniel, but also the final vic- 
tory of Judaism over all other religions. He was the 
author of what may be called the Jewish creed, and 
which, after being somewhat modified during the lapse 
of centuries, may be found now in their ritual, to be 
repeated every morning by the orthodox Jew : 



42 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

1. That there is one God, a perfect being, creator and 
preserver of all things. 

2. That he is the sole cause of all existing things, and 
consequently one, and that such a unity as is in him can be 
found in no other. 

3. He is not corporeal. 

4. He is eternal. 

5. That he alone is to be worshipped, without any medi- 
ator. 

6. That God had appointed prophets. 

7. That Moses was the greatest prophet, to whom revela- 
tion was delivered in a most complete manner. 

8. That the law and tradition were both from God. 

9. That both can never be changed. 

10. That God is omniscient, always beholding the acts of 
men. 

11. That he always rewards and punishes the acts of men. 

12. That Messiah shall come out of the house of David. 

13. That the dead shall rise again. — Schaff-Herzog Encyc. 

All Jews consider the following as their fundamen- 
tal doctrine: "Sh'ma Jisrael, Adonay Elohenu, Ado- 
nay Echod." "Hear, O Israel, the eternal God is one* 
in unity." While agreeing on this, they are divided 
into three classes or denominations — the Orthodox, 
who rigidly maintain all the old customs and usages of 
ancient times; the Reformed, who insist upon a de- 
velopment of Judaism to suit the present age, abolish- 
ing some forms and remodelling others ; and the Con- 
servatives, who hold a middle ground, and endeavor to 
observe the ancient customs, at the same time concili- 
ating the more radical branch. 

The number of Jews throughout the world is vari- 
ously estimated at from 7,500,000 to 10,000,000. Of 
this number 5,000,000 to 5,500,000 are in Europe; 
750,000 to 1,000,000 in Asia; 500,000 to 750,000 in 



ISEAEL. 43 

Africa; in North America 230,000 to 280,000, and 
some in Australia. 

It will thns be seen that the whole number of Israel- 
ites is comparatively small; yet they hold, and have 
ever held, a very important place in the eye of the 
world. 

What is to be the future of this wonderful race? 
Are they to die out ? No, not while the world lives. 
Has God a great purpose to accomplish still by their 
instrumentality ? It would certainly seem so from his 
peculiar care of them. "What it is the future will tell ; 
but it must be, in some important way, connected with 
the final outcome of divine providence, and the eon- 
summation of all things in the closing scenes of the 
drama of time. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Rise op the Papal Empire. 

A TRULY remarkable historical phenomenon is 
the rise of the papacy. It covered a period of 
fifteen hundred years. Beginning in the early days of 
Christianity, in a desire ever present in the human 
heart for power and glory, when the bishops of Rome, 
the capital city, claimed to be superior to those of less 
important cities, it continued as an unvarying influ- 
ence, ever growing stronger, until, in the year 1870, at 
the Yatican Council, the pope was clothed with the full 
prerogatives of an infallible spiritual sovereign. 

The original Christian church was a republic. All 
functions of government were by a court or presbytery, 
composed of ministers and elders. All rulers were 
called presbyters or elders. This is clear from many 
scriptural proofs. The Apostle Peter said: "The el- 
ders which are among you I exhort, who am also an 
elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ." (1 Pet. 
v. 1.) John, speaking of himself, says: "The elder 
unto the elect lady and her children." (2 John i.) Of 
Paul and Barnabas it is written, in Acts xiv. 23 : "And 
when they had ordained them elders in every church." 
In 1 Tim. iv. 14, the apostle to the Gentiles urges his 
former disciple : "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, 
which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on 
of the hands of the presbytery." 

44 




■■■\ • ■■ ft 



THE RISE OP THE PAPAIi EMPIRE. 45 

That there were two classes of elders — ruling, who 
only ruled, and teaching, who both ruled and taught — 
is manifest from a number of texts, but especially from 
1 Tim. v. 17 : "Let the elders that rule well be counted 
worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in 
the word and doctrine." From Acts xx. and the fol- 
lowing passage we learn that ordinary elders were also 
called bishops : " And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, 
and called the elders of the church." This is the seven- 
teenth verse. In the twenty-eighth of the same chap- 
ter the Apostle Paul is exhorting these same elders who 
had come down from Miletus, and he says, " Take heed 
therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over 
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." Over- 
seers here is y Etzigxotzoi in the original, which simply 
means bishops, and is translated bishops in the Revised 
Version. Pastor was a word indicating a higher rank 
than bishop in those scriptural days, meaning just 
what it does now — the shepherd of a flock, the pastor 
of a congregation. But, for some reason, the word 
bishop commended itself to the tastes of the ambitious 
pastors of certain large churches, and they began to call 
themselves bishops, to the exclusion of their fellow- 
elders and co-presbyters. In the times of the apostles 
and the age immediately succeeding their departure 
from the church militant to the church triumphant, the 
Christian body was a republic, ruled by courts, assem- 
blies of elders, all of equal rank, except the apostles 
themselves, who were appointed to be eye-witnesses 
of the resurrection of Christ. These assemblies were 
all presbyteries, because composed of presbyters, and 
were of different grades. " Every church " had its 



4:6 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

bench of "elders" or presbyters. A question affecting 
the entire body was submitted to the apostles and eld- 
ers in Jerusalem on one occasion, and the decree sent 
out to all parts of the world (see Acts xv.). For a 
fuller exposition of the constitution of the apostolic 
and post-apostolic church, see the People's History of 
Presbyterianism in all Ages. In a sketch like this the 
merest hints can be given of such a broad subject. 
Suffice it to add the testimony of Dean Stanley, given 
by him in the words of Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Dur- 
ham, the most learned of all the English bishops: 
"The early constitution of the apostolic churches of 
the first century was not that of a single bishop, but 
of a body of pastors, indifferently styled bishops or 

presbyters Presbytery was not a later growth 

out of episcopacy, but episcopacy was a later growth 
out of presbytery." 

From this primitive republican simplicity, it was a 
long journey to the despotism of the pastor of the con- 
gregation of Koine over the great mass of Christians. 
It was a long journey, and it required many centuries 
to accomplish it. No body of intelligent people would 
consent to be deprived of their liberties by one great 
act of usurpation. It must be gradual, and the en- 
croachments must be made so insidiously as to excite 
no determined opposition. During nearly two thou- 
sand years a process of centralization was going on. 
The Roman bishop was always on the alert for an ac- 
quisition of power, never giving back, animated by a 
great ambition, and that the complete subjugation of 
the world. This design, almost achieved, savored of 
one great intelligence. Nations rose and fell, great 



THE RISE OF THE PAPAL EMPIRE. 47 

men came and went, centuries were but waves on a 
tide. One idea pervaded the history of the Church of 
Home. "What was it? Whose was it? "Was it the 
spirit which said, " If any man will be greatest among 
you, let him be servant of all ?" Was it the idea of Him 
who girded himself with a towel that he might wash 
his disciples' feet ? No ; it was that of the hated spirit 
who, before the world began, sought to dethrone the 
Almighty and to rule in heaven ; and having failed in 
this, determined not only to be prince of hell, but also 
to be master of earth. The history of the rise of the 
papacy is but another chapter in the story of the am- 
bition of Satan, who was bold enough to tempt Adam 
and Eve to try his own awful experiment, and who, 
succeeding in this, endeavored again to override the 
purposes of God and rule his Son when he made the 
base proposal that he should bow down and worship 
him. Now, as Christ refused, he plots through two 
millenniums to become master of his church. There is 
no denying that, behind the centuries of aggressive 
centralization by which the papacy became practically 
ruler of the world, there was a wisdom more than hu- 
man. Who can say it was divine ? 

During the first period after Christ, even the Ro- 
manists do not claim that the bishops or pastors of 
Rome wielded any authority over the church at 
large. They now declare that they possessed the pri- 
macy, but did not exercise it. As early as the 
second and third centuries the bishops of Rome en- 
joyed great respect, and their advice was weighty, as 
would be the case with any eminent city pastor now. 
They claim that St. Peter founded the congregation in 



48 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Rome, and was the first pope. But there is not a 
shadow of evidence to support this claim, nor is there 
any proof that the Apostle Peter ever saw the Eternal 
City. In the fourth century (325 A. D.), at Nice, the 
great oecumenical council declared the right of the 
bishop of Eome to ordain all the bishops in Italy. 
This shows that by that time the Roman pastor had 
progressed far beyond the republican equality of early 
days. But that same council of Nice decreed further, 
that the bishops of Alexandria should have power to 
ordain all bishops in Egypt, Libya, and the Pentapolis. 
This proves incontestably that the claims to universal 
primacy, afterwards made by the Roman pontiff, were 
unheard of in the first half of the fourth century. 

The Roman bishops became wealthy ; their church 
was great and influential ; they lived in the capital of 
the world, and were thus before the eyes of all men, 
and in communication with every part of the universal 
church. The doctrinal controversies of the fourth cen- 
tury and onward afforded opportunities for them to ex- 
ercise influence and authority in settling disputes, 
which in the course of time they claimed the right to 
arbitrate and the authority to decide. In 343 A. T>. 
the Council of Sardica "allowed any bishop who had 
been deposed by a metropolitan synod to appeal to 
the bishop of Rome, who might give a prima facie 
verdict, or institute a new examiimtios of the case by 
his legate and a number of bishops, just as he found 
it necessary." This was establishing about the bishop 
of Rome a kind of supreme court. The Council of 
Sardica was, however, not considered as oecumenical, 
nor was its authority recognized by the whole church. 



THE KISE OF THE PAPAL EMPIRE. 49 

The next step towards universal sovereignty was 
taken when, in 445 A. D., Valentinian III. issued a 
decree recognizing the bishop of Rome as the primate 
of the Christian church, not only in judicial but also 
in legislative matters. But this still left the pope sub- 
ject to the authority of the emperor, and the decree of 
Yalentinian was only valid for the west. Nevertheless, 
towards the close of the fifth century Rome was able 
to make its influence felt to a considerable degree, even 
in the Orient. 

The process of centralization was delayed by the in- 
vasions of the Germanic tribes, and at that period new 
empires were arising in Gaul, Spain and Britain, upon 
which the Roman bishop had no claim. But Rome 
was patient. Its opportunity would come at last. 

In the eighth century, Pepin, king of France, desir- 
ing to set aside a rival, sent a messenger to the pope, 
asking his holiness to arbitrate between him and Chil- 
deric as to which had the better title to the throne. 
Zacharias, the pope, saw his opportunity.f or the acqui- 
sition of power. He had long entertained the scheme 
of setting up a temporal kingdom for the Holy See. 
He therefore wished to dispossess the kingdom from 
the Lombards, and determined to employ the arms of 
France to accomplish it. He decided in favor of Pe- 
pin, because Pepin had recognized his authority. So, 
in 753, Pepin was crowned king of the Franks, by Bon- 
iface, a legate of Pope Zacharias, an event of momen- 
tous importance in its influence upon subsequent 
events. During the next year, in the pontificate of 
Stephen III., the duchy of Rome was invaded by Ais- 
tulf, the king of the Lombards. Steplaen fled and took 
5 



50 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

refuge with King Pepin and the Franks, by whom he 
was received with every mark of respect. Pepin then 
invaded the territory of the Lombards, and wrested from 
them the extensive territory of Bavenna and the Pen- 
tapolis, which he turned over to Pope Stephen, "to be 
held and enjoyed by the pontiffs of the apostolic See 
for ever." 

Charlemagne the Great, king of France, son and suc- 
cessor of Pepin, was crowned by the hands of Pope 
Leo III. in the church of St. Peter, " King of the Bo- 
mans," a title which had expired three hundred years 
before in the person of Augustulus. Charlemagne con- 
firmed to the pope, in return for this, his title to all the 
territory given him by Pepin, and as much more, which 
constituted henceforth a strong temporal basis for the 
papacy to stand upon. 

It will thus be seen that, by the end of the eighth 
century, the principal papal claims were in existence — 
the right to exercise supreme spiritual authority, and 
also to regulate the governmental affairs of the nations. 
The policy of the papacy henceforth was continually 
to assert these claims, and avail itself of every oppor- 
tunity to press them. Pope Nicholas I., who ruled 
from 858 to 867, in his apostolic bulls and letters, de- 
clared to Christendom that appeals could be made to 
him from the decisions of all ecclesiastical judicatories, 
and that the pope must therefore have a legate or re- 
presentative in all countries ; that it was right for all 
subjects to obey their temporal sovereigns so long as 
those sovereigns conducted themselves properly to- 
wards the Holy Church, but when they acted otherwise 
their allegiance ceased. To grant these claims was to 



THE RISE OP THE PAPAL EMPIRE. 51 

make the pope the umpire and the arbiter of the world, 
and this was what the papacy set before itself as the 
ultimate goal of its ambition. 

A. literary forgery of a very peculiar nature was used 
to advance the power of the Roman See during the 
primacy of Nicholas I. It was in the middle of the 
ninth century that Isadore, bishop of Seville, pub- 
lished a set of fabricated letters, alleged to have been 
written by various popes as far back as 93 A. D. These 
letters, or " decretals," declared that Peter was the first 
pope, and that all the subsequent pontiffs of Rome had 
received by direct succession their authority from him ; 
that all bishops and ministers should be exempt from 
taxes and independent of the secular power ; that the 
church had paramount jurisdiction over all temporal 
sovereigns, to depose them from their thrones and to 
absolve all subjects from their allegiance. This absurd 
and fraudulent publication had encrmous influence in 
magnifying the office of the successors of Peter, and 
the forgery was never fully exposed until the Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century turned on the light. 

The alleged election of a woman to the pontifical 
chair about this time threw the assumptions of the 
Holy See into great ridicule. But as it is by no means 
certain that the story of the primacy of " Pope Joan " 
is true, we pass on to a much more serious disaster to 
the interests of the ecclesiastical empire which had 
arisen upon the ruins of Rome. It was no less a mis- 
fortune than a schism which separated the Eastern, or 
Greek, from the Latin, or Western, church. 

The chief bishop of Constantinople was called the 
patriarch The emperor of the Constantinopolitan 



52 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY 

empire being dissatisfied with a certain patriarch, 
Ignatius, deposed him, and appointed Photius, a 
eunuch of the palace, in his place. Photius was a 
man of consummate talents and unbounded ambition. 
In a controversy with the pope, Photius declared him- 
self independent of his authority. The pope at once 
thundered out a sentence of deposition and excommu- 
nication against Photius. Photius returned the com- 
pliments of the season by excommunicating and de- 
posing the pope, and claiming spiritual sovereignty 
over all the earth. From henceforth the world was 
not to be too small to contain two great ecclesiastical 
empires and two universal potentates. Photius had 
many ups and downs of adventure in his checkered 
life, and at last died in disgrace, but his successors 
have maintained his pretensions, and to this day the 
Greek Church dominates an enormous number of ad- 
herents in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. 

The main business of the church now being tem- 
poral aggrandizement, such matters as virtue, morality 
and the honor of God were shamefully neglected. Im- 
itating the example of the head of the church, the 
bishops and minor clergy devoted themselves to the 
acquisition of wealth, or to the unbridled indulgence 
of their lusts. It is confidently asserted that many 
bishops could not repeat the Apostles' Creed nor read 
the Scriptures. Ecclesiastical preferments were be- 
stowed upon most unworthy persons, and often sold 
to the highest bidder. The Spirit of Christ seemed to 
have taken his flight, and Satan rejoiced in the tri- 
umph of his schemes. The shades of night were fall- 
ing rapidly, and the " dark ages " were at hand. The 



THE RISE OF THE PAPAL EMPIRE. 53 

glory of Rome had departed, and the shadow of a 
black wing rested over the decaying world. It was the 
same as that which fell upon Adam and Eve in Eden, 
even beside the Tree of Life. 

The dissolution of the Erankish empire threw Italy 
into confusion. Rome was ruled by an aristocratic 
faction, and the papacy was sometimes disposed of by 
the influence of immoral women. The rising empire 
of Germany, under Otho I., lifted the degraded church 
somewhat from the filth and mire into which it had 
fallen. But the German emperor was the real ruler of 
the church from 962 to the middle of the eleventh cen- 
tury, and claimed the right to depose the supreme 
pontiff. In the middle of the eleventh century, how- 
ever, Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), who was pope from 
1073 to 1085, a man of wonderful ability, headed a 
party which claimed for the papacy the right to act as 
umpire of Christendom and the world, in civil as well 
as spiritual affairs. After a fierce contest with the 
German empire, the pope succeeded in effecting his 
absolute emancipation from the imperial power. Un- 
der Innocent III. (1198-1216), the goal of papal am- 
bition was realized, when, by the assumption of all 
temporal and spiritual power, even to the extent of 
dooming men to perdition in the next world, as well as 
to any kind of punishment in the present, indepen- 
dently of all control, there seemed nothing left to seek, 
except the throne of the Almighty itself. 

From this period the papacy began to decay. Dis- 
satisfaction arose in the west. The churches of Erance, 
England and Germany developed a dangerous spirit of 
independence and insubordination. In a memorable 



54 THE YOICE OF GOD IX HISTORY. 

contest between Pope Boniface VIII. and Philip the 
Fair of Prance the papacy suffered a disastrous defeat. 
In 1309 the pontifical court was transferred to Avignon, 
Prance, where it remained for seventy years, under the 
control, to a great extent, of the French king. Mean- 
while Eome, disappointed and hungry for the money 
which followed the Holy See, determined that it would 
have a pope, if it had to make one of its own. Accord- 
ingly, Urban VI. was elected by the Italian cardinals. 
He was shortly removed, and Robert of Geneva was 
put into his place with the title of Clement VII. (1378- 
1394). For a period of thirty-eight years Europe en- 
joyed the luxury of two popes bombarding one another 
across the Alps with bulls, anathemas of damnation 
for this world and the next, together with many other 
neighborly courtesies of like character. 

But the spell was broken; the awful nightmare of 
Romish tyranny was being dissipated. The sixteenth 
century was dawning, and the voice of God was calling, 
out of a coming age, for a host of brave reformers, who 
would re-establish liberty and truth among men. The 
church of Rome could burn Savonarola, Huss, and 
other martyrs ; it could destroy God's saints among 
the "Waldenses, the French, Germans, Bohemians, 
English, and Scotch; but millions were behind them; 
the voice of the Almighty had broken the silence of 
centuries. All hail to the ascending day! Luther, 
Calvin, Knox, and other stars were gleaming against 
the ruddy dawn. Thank God, the light had come at 
last. 

In the year 1546, the year of Luther's death, a great 
council was held at Trent, where, under the inspiration 



THE EISE OF THE PAPAL EMPIRE. 55 

of Belarniin, the doctrine of the papacy was clearly- 
stated against the Eeformation. It was of no use; 
the trembling frame of popery was decrepit from age. 
They could not make it young again. And now, in our 
own time, another spasmodic effort has been made to 
galvanize the toothless ex-empress of the world, by the 
Vatican Council of 1870 and the decree of papal infal- 
libihty. Alas ! to say that the pope is a god does not 
even make him a man ! Nicholas I. and Gregory YIL 
are no more. The days are past for ever when kings 
and queens will tremble before the bishop of Koine. 



CHAPTER Y. 

MONASTICISM. 

MONASTICISM was born on the banks of the 
Nile, though the influences which led to it were 
world-wide, and had existed long before the institution 
attained an organization. In the days of our Lord, 
we find among the Jews a sect of Essenes, the mem- 
bers of which pursued lives similar to those of the 
monks of a later period. The earliest mention of these 
people was about 1£0 B. C. They are described fully 
by Philo and Josephus. They present the finest ex- 
emplification of asceticism in the ancient world. 

The national life of the Jews was hastening to its 
ruin. Corruption, the sure precursor of disintegration, 
was everywhere prevalent. The rulers led the masses 
in irreligion and licentiousness. Nothing could have 
been more shameful than the condition of the Jewish 
nobility and priesthood at that time. It may be some 
slight extenuation to say that this condition of immorality 
was not peculiar to Palestine, but was general through- 
out the world. A description of the social and politi- 
cal corruption of Rome, the imperial city at that period, 
from the throne to the humblest beggar's cot, furnishes 
a picture of depravity and baseness little short of ancient 
Sodom. The asceticism of the Essenes was a protest 
against the almost universal licentiousness of the times. 
Their fundamental mistake was in laying upon the hu- 

56 



MONASTICISM. 



57 



man body the blame of all sin, and hence logically in- 
ferring that the mortification of the flesh would involve 
the cnre of all immorality. To their Judaism they 
-added some of the principles of Parseeism, Stoicism, 
and general Greek philosophy. These ideas may, in 
part, have been brought back from the captivity in 
Babylon, bnt it is more probable that, in their disgust 
at the apparent failure of Judaism, they turned to the 
heathen philosophy for remedies to cure or check the 
malady of sin. 

The practical aim of the Essenes was to conquer the 
body, and to bring the soul out of its fleshly bondage. 
There was very much about them to commend. They 
lived in small communities throughout Palestine, giv- 
ing up their personal property for the common, use. 
They devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits, were 
required to maintain honesty, virtue and justice, with 
an unselfish devotion to one another and to mankind 
in general. They required no penances nor self-chas- 
tisement ; their food was extremely simple, consisting 
of bread and vegetables, without meat or wine. Their 
daily round of duties consisted of lustrations, hours of 
meditation, and seasons of labor. Excitement was 
condemned, and conversation on topics which might 
develop into contention was avoided. They sought to 
maintain a holy calmness of mind. They condemned 
slavery and war; perhaps they were the first society 
which ever did this. Marriage was repudiated, because 
they dreaded what they called the artfulness and fickle- 
ness of the female sex. They adopted children and 
brought them up in the principles of their order, though 
none but adults were allowed to become members. 



53 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

When received as novitiates for a three years' proba- 
tion, every candidate was presented with three em- 
blems of purity — a spade, an apron, and a white dress. 

Such abstemious lives as they lived were conducive 
to longevity, and many of their members attained a 
great old age. Their venerable appearance, their pure 
lives, and their uniform kindness to the unfortunate, 
as well as to mankind in general, made them very in- 
fluential in moral questions. They did not believe in 
the resurrection of the body, because they thought it 
necessarily sinful, and they were glad to be finally 
separated from it by death, and freed from its evil in- 
fluences, to have their souls attain unto a glorious 
apotheosis of unobstructed heavenly life. 

When Jerusalem fell, and the Jewish nation were 
scattered over the globe, the Essenes ceased to exist, 
but their spirit remained, and was destined to leaven 
the Christian church to such a degree that their ex- 
ample, in many particulars, would be followed by 
thousands of men in other lands. 

Egypt, the dreamy land of the broad river and low 
horizon, was the birth-place of Christian asceticism. 
A more favorable combination of influences could 
hardly be imagined. Christianity had flourished with 
great rapidity in that country, and Alexandria soon 
became a centre and stronghold of the new religion. 
But it took on a quiet, contemplative, almost passive, 
character. The histories of those times were very 
imperfect, and pious fiction was to supply the place of 
wanting facts, so that the narratives handed down to 
us of the ascetics or anchorites of the early days of 
monachism must be received with grains of allowance. 



MONASTICISM. 59 

Paul of Alexandria seems to deserve the credit of 
having been the first of the rnonachists. "When the 
Dacian persecutions reached Egypt, he was about 
twenty -three years of age. From that period until he 
reached the age of ninety he lived in the desert of 
Thebiad, in a cavern, deriving food from the fruit of 
a palm tree hard by, and clothing from its leaves. 
Here he lived a life of fasting and prayer. So great 
became his reputation for piety that the wild beasts of 
the desert felt its influence, and came to offer obeisance 
at the entrance of his cave, and when he died they 
solemnly waited around his grave. So goes the his- 
tory. 

The mantle of Paul fell upon worthy shoulders, for 
a young man named Anthony, afterwards better known 
as St. Anthony, and who long lived the life of an 
eremite, caught the full spirit of Paul, and became 
famous for his contempt of the world. Anthony at- 
tended Paul in his last moments, and buried him, 
wrapped in a cloak of St. Athanasius. This Anthony 
had lost his father and mother in 270 A. D., in his 
eighteenth year. By this bereavement he was left in 
possession of large wealth; but on entering a church 
one day he heard read the text, "If thou wilt be per- 
fect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come fol- 
low me." This message from heaven, as he considered 
it, led Anthony to a determination to give up all he 
had for a life of holy self-denial. He carried out his 
pious resolution at once, reserving only enough of 
his patrimony to support his sister in moderate com- 
fort. He afterwards gave away also the portion re- 



60 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

served for his sister, and placed her in the care of a 
society of religious virgins. These matters being all 
arranged, he betook himself to a solitary spot, where 
he might work his own salvation by the prayers and 
privations of a hermit's life. An angel taught him to 
weave mats, and to perform other kinds of labor by 
which he might obtain the scanty subsistence which 
he needed. His only meal consisted of bread, salt 
and water, and was never taken before sunset. His 
couch was the bare floor, thinly strewn with rushes. 
After a time, he changed his abode to a sepulchre, but 
in 285 A. D. he boldly sallied out into the desert to 
seek a home among its arid wasts. Standing near the 
Red Sea was an old ruined tower, hard by a grove 
with running water. In the distance were treeless 
mountains, and overhead a cloudless sky, from which 
the fiery rays of an equatorial sun shot mercilessly 
upon the earth. 

St. Anthony was hardly settled in this tower before 
he found his new sanctuary invaded by innumerable 
demons, come to torment him and tempt him to sin. 
His solitude, too, was disturbed by multitudes of re- 
ligious pilgrims, who sought his counsel and his 
prayers. Many of them settled near his tower, and 
established themselves in diminutive cells, where they 
might imitate the exalted piety of the saint. But An- 
thony had hard work to control his own lusts, and the 
more he battled with them the stronger they seemed to 
become. An active life, spent in seeking and saving 
the lost, would have spared him these conflicts ; and in 
imitating his Master, who went about doing good, he 
would have found a blessing and unfailing peace given 



MONASTTCISM. 61 

by him who prayed for his followers, " Not that thou 
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldest keep them from the evil." It is said that St. 
Anthony had a small piece of ground, not far from his 
tower, where he planted corn for his own use. The 
wild beasts made depredations upon his crop, and the 
saint took occasion gently to admonish them, where- 
upon they betook themselves to the desert, never to re- 
turn. In the Borghese palace at Rome one can see a 
picture which represents another truthful incident of 
the life of this holy man. He was standing on the 
shore of the sea preaching to the fishes. His finny 
hearers listen with solemn attention and upturned eyes, 
until the saint dismisses them with a blessing at the 
close of the service. Then they betake themselves to 
the depths of the ocean, that they may disseminate 
everywhere, to all fishes, the blessed gospel they had 
heard ! 

Of course such a man could not remain in obscurity. 
He was written to by the Emperor Constantine for ad- 
vice and counsel in the troublous affairs of that time. 
In the Arian controversy he took sides with the ortho- 
dox, and went to Alexandria to speak in behalf of the 
wronged Athanasius. This was at the age of one hun- 
dred years, and his venerable appearance, together 
with his strange dress of sheepskins, made a profound 
impression upon the city. Under the burning eloquence 
of his sermons thousands were converted to the true 
faith, and led to confess Jesus as the Son of God. He 
was favored with the unreserved friendship and favor 
of the great Athanasius, and, though highly honored, 
still maintained his simple humility. But while at 
6 



62 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Alexandria it was revealed to Anthony that there was 
another saint more holy than he, who also dwelt in the 
desert. This was Paul of Thebes, whose piety con- 
stituted the theme of the early portion of this chapter. 
Anthony, always ready to learn, had recourse to Paul's 
humble abode, and, after persistent knocking, was ad- 
mitted. On another visit Anthony had the honor of 
attending Paul in his dying moments, and of perform- 
ing the last rites of funeral for his sacred remains. 
Anthony was rewarded by seeing the soul of his friend 
borne upward by angels to the glorious fellowship of the 
prophets, apostles and martyrs who had gone before. 

At last the time came when St. Anthony himself was 
to pass into the presence of ineffable light. With sim- 
ple resignation he said: "I enter, as it is written, the 
path of my fathers ; for I see that the Lord calls me." 
He bequeathed his cloak to Athanasius, from whom it 
had been originally a gift, and his garment of haircloth 
fell to his two immediate attendants. No other trea- 
sure did he possess, save what was laid up in heaven. 
Lest his body should be unduly revered, it was, in 
compliance with the wishes of the saint, buried secretly, 
and no one allowed to know of its resting place. 

St. Anthony was the father of monachism. He had 
given it a great impulse, and thousands of anchorites 
were scattered over the deserts of Egypt. For good 
or bad, a mighty principle had been wrought into the 
fabric of Christianity. Anthony was dead, but his 
work lived on, and still lives, after fifteen hundred 
years, all over the Roman Catholic world. Nor would 
it be right to deny to this father of all monks and mon- 
asteries all true greatness of soul or holiness of life. 



MONASTICISM. 63 

It was reserved for Pacliomius (292-348 A. D.) to or- 
ganize the elements left by St. Anthony into communities, 
where, instead of living solitary and alone in the wil- 
derness, men of a common faith and purpose might 
dwell together, deriving reciprocal comfort and sup- 
port from one another's society. At the time of his 
death, Pacliomius had gathered at Tabenne, an island 
in the Nile, a community of sixteen hundred men. 
The brethren of Tabenne built a monastery for women, 
and Pacliomius wrote a code of rules for their govern- 
ment. After this, the formation of societies of female 
recluses was very rapid. Thus was monasticism, fully 
developed as we now see it, launched upon the Chris- 
tian church. 

It requires no philosopher to show how this system 
would tend to weaken society and the church, by draw- 
ing off from the active employments of Christian life 
thousands of its best workers, to spend their time in 
idleness or useless tasks, when the world was full of 
the children of sorrow and sin needing help. The 
monks, too, became proud and domineering, claiming 
a sanctity superior to that of the regular clergy, and 
demanding undue respect and obedience from them. 

Monasticism was a sin against God and human na- 
ture, and it is not surprising that it has entailed such 
baleful results upon religion and the race. 

Monasticism spread rapidly over Northern Africa, 
Asia and Europe. During some ages the monks did 
a real service in the maintenance of art and learning, 
though in their hands both were cramped within very 
narrow bounds. In the sixteenth century, when the 
spirit of learning was revived throughout Europe, and 



64: THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

religion was greatly reformed, xnonasticisni fell into a 
decline, from which it has not rallied to this day. Many 
monasteries have been turned into colleges and hos- 
pitals, and the monks and nnns sent out into the world, 
to marry and make an honest living for themselves, 
which is certainly a change for the better. 

There can be no doubt but that thousands of these 
poor people were engaged in a real search for Christ, 
and that they found him too. This quest for Christ, 
which finds itself successful in monastery, convent or 
church, in city or country, on land or sea, is fittingly 
described by Quarles in the following beautiful lines : 

"I searched this glorious city: he's not here ; 

I sought the country: she stands empty-handed; 
I searched the court: he is a stranger there; 

I asked the land: he's shipped; the sea: he's landed; 
I climbed the air : my thoughts began t'aspire ; 
But, ah ! the wings of my too bold desire, 
Soaring too near the sun, were singed with sacred fire. 

"I moved the merchant's ear: alas! but he 
Knew neither what I said, nor what to say ; 
I asked the lawyer : he demands a fee, 

And then demurs me with a vain delay ; 
I asked the schoolman: his advice was free, 

But scored me out too intricate a way ; 
I asked the watchman, best of all the f our, 
Whose gentle answer could resolve no more, 
But that he lately left him at the temple door. 

"Thus having sought and made my great inquest 
In every place, and searched in every ear, 
I threw me on my bed; but, oh! my rest 

Was poisoned with extremes of grief and fear, 
When, looking down into my troubling breast — 
The magazine of wounds — I found him there!" 



CHAPTER VI. 

Aukeliu3 Augustine, the Most Influential ThinkeH 
Since Paul. 

HOW beautiful is the love of woman ! Among the 
fairest flowers of earth is a mother's affection for 
her child. The man who has no mother's love to re- 
member is much to be pitied. A life without this to 
bless its beginning is like a summer without a spring, 
or a day with a dewy morn. Augustine was one of the 
greatest men that ever lived, yet his life would have 
been a failure but for his mother's passionate and al- 
most romantic affection for him. The story of Mon- 
ica's love for her son, Aurelius, has gone into history 
among the classics of humanity. 

In his youth he was very wicked, but his sinful life 
only seemed to intensify Monica's devotion, and to 
make more importunate her prayers for her son. Not 
satisfied with the tenderest admonitions and with the 
urgency of her own petitions for Augustine at the 
throne of grace, she had recourse often to a minister, 
beseeching that he would pray for the conversion of 
her son. Often did she approach the threshold of the 
man of God with the same importunate request, griev- 
ing over the wayward courses of the object of her love. 
At last he dismissed her, saying, " Go thy ways, and 
God bless thee ; it is not possible that the child of 
these tears should perish." The whole world knows 

65 



66 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

that it was even so, and that Augustine became an em- 
inent Christian minister, the most influential of all un- 
inspired religious writers, and really the author of the 
great Reformation of the sixteenth centuiy, which has 
been such a blessing to mankind. The infidel Renan 
said : " Paul begat Augustine, and Augustine begat 
Calvin." The biographies of nearly all the leaders of 
the mighty religious Reformation, which did not occur 
until a thousand years after Augustine died, will show 
that they were brought to the truth and the light of 
the gospel by reading the works of Monica's son. 

Aurelius, commonly called "Saint" Augustine, was 
born in Tagaste, a Numidian town of North Africa, 
November 13, 353. Patricius, his father, was a bur- 
gess of the municipality, and was an upright man, 
though not a Christian, until made so in answer to the 
prayers of his devoted wife. When Augustine was 
born his father was still a pagan, but as he grew up he 
was ever under the influence of his mother's ardent 
piety. She taught him most faithfully the religion of 
her love and faith. 

But Augustine had inherited from his father a sen- 
sual disposition. He was passionately fond of the the- 
atre, which was at that day no less an enemy to good 
morals than at the present, and kept company with 
dissolute young men. He early formed an illicit con- 
nection, and at the age of nineteen became the father 
of a son, born out of wedlock, whom he named Adeo- 
datus. For twelve years he and the mother of Adeo- 
datus lived together, a condition of things so common 
at the time as to excite but little unfavorable comment, 
and when he sent her away that he might take to him- 



AUKELIUS AUGUSTINE. 67 

self a legal wife, lie said she left his "heart racked and 
wounded and bleeding." His betrothed, however, be- 
ing two years under the marriageable age, he took an- 
other mistress, and continued this new connection 
until his thirty-third year, when he was converted to 
Christ, and turned his back upon the world and the 
lusts of the flesh. He thereafter lived virtuously, 
though a celibate, and devoted himself to the ministry 
of religion to the end of his days. 

In the midst of his waywardness he was, strange to 
relate, an earnest student, and gave evidence of re- 
markable talent. His father, who was very proud of 
him, gave him the advantages of an excellent educa- 
tion, and devoted him to the profession of a rhetori- 
cian. He studied at Madura and Carthage. His tal- 
ents did not run much after mathematics, but he loved 
poetry. "I sinned then," he wrote in after years, "as 
a boy, when I preferred those empty to those more 
profitable studies, or rather loved the one and hated 
the other. 'One and one, two;' 'two and two, four;' 
this was to me a hateful sing-song. 'The wooden 
horse lined with armed men,' and 'the burning of 
Troy,' and 'Creusa's shade and sad similitude' (M. 2), 
were the choice spectacle of my vanity." The writings 
of Cicero also engaged his mind, and started him in a 
line of philosophical research, which he followed with 
enthusiasm. While pursuing his studies at Carthage 
he frequented the theatre, where spectacles of unusual 
magnificence were afforded. To his sensuous nature 
such things were wellnigh irresistible. The Christian 
church was then, as now, utterly opposed to this kind 
of enjoyment. It has been said that Christianity "ab- 



68 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

horred the pagan theatre. The idolatrous rites, the 
lascivious attitudes, the gladiatorial shows, which were 
its inseparable accompaniments, were equally opposed 
to the dogmatic monotheism, to the piety, and to the 
mercy of the gospel." During that period no man 
who called himself a Christian attended plays, and 
those who had attended them abandoned them forever 
when they became the followers of Him whose life was 
all truth, virtue and love. No one was more earnest 
in condemning the stage than Augustine, after his con- 
version, declaring that, apart from the immoralities of 
the theatre, the fictitious joys and sorrows excited in 
the spectators were not of the nature of wholesome 
recreations, for they made life seem unreal and tame 
by contrast, and blunted the finer passions of the soul. 

In the course of his experience, Augustine was not 
long in discovering that there were certain great needs 
of his soul which worldly pleasures could not fill, and 
which must yet in some way be satisfied, or there 
could be no true happiness. His great mind began to 
wrestle with the problems of sin and salvation. Per- 
haps no man ever had a more violent and protracted 
struggle in coming to the truth than did Augustine. 
It is most graphically portrayed in his Confessions, a 
work which stands with The Imitation of Christ as 
among the very richest of all books of Christian devo- 
tion. 

For a short time he held to a sect called Manichreans. 
This religion originated in the Orient, and was typically 
oriental in its nature, but in the fourth century had 
extended far into the West. It taught that the world 
began from an accidental mixing of two opposite ele- 



AURELIUS AUGU3TINE. 69 

ments — one radically good and the other radically evil 
but both eternal. The conflict of these two elements 
makes up the history of mankind. This religion at- 
tempts to satisfy man's inner yearnings, by giving him 
an explanation of the universe, but not by giving him 
deliverance from sin, and that peace which comes only 
from a sense of divine favor. Augustine soon became 
disgusted with inanichoeism, and removed to Borne, 
that he might practice his profession as a rhetorician. 
He was offered a better opening in Milan, so he made 
his home in that city of northern Italy. At Milan his 
thirst for peace waxed stronger. He constantly pur- 
sued mental rest. "To-morrow," he said, "I shall 
find it; it will appear manifestly, and I shall grasp it." 
But he constantly failed to realize his hopes, and sunk 
into the deepest despondency. God, however, was 
preparing deliverance for him. Monica's prayers were 
about to be answered, and she was going to live to 
see it. 

In the city of Milan, still famous for its cultivation 
of literature and music, there was at that time a bishop, 
Ambrose, whose piety, learning and eloquence attracted 
great multitudes. Augustine went to hear, that he 
might judge "whether his eloquence answered what 
was reported of it." The young rhetorician was fasci- 
nated. He continued to attend upon the preaching 
of Ambrose, at the same time studying the writings of 
Plato and the Apostle Paul. In company with a cher- 
ished friend, Alypius, he devoted himself to the Paul- 
ine epistles. His anxiety was uncontrollable. He and 
Alypius were studying together one day some part of 
the writings of Paul. A great struggle was going on 



70 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

in liis soul between a sense of divine purity and the 
love of sinful pleasure. He could stand it no longer, 
but rushing out into a garden he threw himself upon 
the earth beneath a fig-tree, and poured out his emo- 
tions in a flood of tears. ' But He who saw Nathanael 
under a fig-tree pitied his poor servant now. Suddenly 
he seemed to hear a heavenly voice saying : " Take up 
and read, take up and read." He arose, and returned 
to where Alypius was sitting. Taking the sacred book 
from his hand, he opened it, and read in silence the 
following passage : "Not in rioting and drunkenness, 
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and 
envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts 
thereof." " I had no desire," he wrote, " no need to 
read further. As I finished the sentence it was as 
though the light of peace had been poured into my 
heart, and all the shadows of doubt dispersed. Thus 
hast thou converted me to thee, so as no longer to seek 
for hope of the world, standing fast in that rule of faith 
in which thou so many years before hadst revealed to 
me in my mother." 

This was in the summer of 386 A. D. ; the next spring 
he was baptized, being in his thirty-third year. Au- 
gustine, his son Adeodatus, and his friend Alypius, 
were received into the Christian church together, and 
Monica, her heart overflowing with J03-, was there to 
witness the sacred scene. 

" We were baptized," wrote Augustine, " and anxiety 
for our past life banished from us. Nor was I sated 
in those days with the wondrous sweetness of consider- 
ing the depth of thy counsels concerning the salvation 



AURELIUS AUGUSTINE. 71 

of mankind. How did I weep, in thy hymns and can- 
ticles, touched to the quick by the voices of thy sweet- 
attuned church. ! The voices flowed into mine ears, 
and the truth distilled into my heart, whence the affec- 
tions of my devotion overflowed, and tears ran down, 
and happy was I therein." In another place he writes 
of the blessedness of being in Christ : " Stand with 
him, and ye shall stand fast. Kest in him, and ye 
shall be at rest." 

But, as Augustine said, "time loses no time," and 
events marched rapidly on. 

Monica's work was ended, her "nunc dimittis" was 
come. The little company, now so happy, so grateful, 
started home for Africa, but when they had journeyed as 
far as Ostia, where they were to take ship for Carthage, 
Monica died. There they buried her, and no sweeter 
maternal heart ever beat than that one which loving 
hands laid to rest beside the blue waters which she 
was never to cross again, because God called her to 
come over a wider sea to a better home in heaven. 

In 1430 Monica's body was removed to Rome, and 
sacredly entrusted to the keeping of the church of St. 
Augustine. 

After the sad event, Augustine returned to Home 
for a brief sojourn, and then made his way to Africa. 
His preparation being completed, he was now about to 
enter upon the real work of his life. In Tagaste, his 
native city, secluded from the world, he gathered about 
himself a company of believers, having all things in 
common. Their life was not formally monastic, and 
yet it became the basis of monasticism in subsequent 
times. The Life of St. Anthony, by Athanasius, had 



72 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

already created a sentiment in favor of a life of re- 
ligions retirement, and Augustine had been consider- 
ably affected by it. The association of devout celibates 
in religious communities now received considerable 
impulse from the influence of Bishop Ambrose of Mi- 
lan and his illustrious convert. 

Invitations began to come to Augustine to accept 
positions affording wider opportunities for usefulness 
than he could expect in the midst of his little band of 
devotees at Tagaste. He declined them, and sensi- 
tively shrank from all attempts to draw him into a pub- 
lic life. But his destiny was peremptory; God was 
calling him. After three years of retirement, he took 
a journey to Hippo, to visit a Christian friend who 
desired to consult him upon the question of himself 
quitting the world. While at Hippo, attending ser- 
vice, the people chose him as a presbyter and assistant 
to the bishop. He wept as he struggled against it ; 
but the call of duty was upon him; he could not re- 
fuse, and was at length ordained. It resulted in his 
becoming, ultimately (395 A. D.), Bishop of Hippo, 
under which title he is best known in ecclesiastical 
history. 

From henceforth the life of Augustine was in the 
world's eye, and occupied with the most engrossing- 
activities. His numerous writings and great contro- 
versies kept him intensely engaged, and. brought him 
into contact with the life of the church in all countries. 
He had already distinguished himself as the author of 
several philosophical treatises ; had written on " The 
Blessed Life," the "Immortality of the Soul," and also 
with his pen had defended the church against the Man- 



AUEELIUS AUGUSTINE. 73 

ichseans. He further attacked a party of religionists 
called Donatists, from the name of Donatus, their 
leader, who made great pretensions to purity of dis- 
cipline in the church. They were very fanatical and 
disobedient to the laws. In his writings against the 
Donatists, while he inculcated moderation in the ad- 
ministration of discipline, Augustine let drop some 
crude maxims asserting the duty of the ciyil power to 
control schism, which were productive of much disas- 
ter in the subsequent history of Christianity. 

The great work of Augustine's life was his con- 
troversy with Pelagius, the father of Pelagianism. 
Pelagius was a Scotch or Irish monk, who took up 
his abode in Borne for a time, and began to promul- 
gate heretical opinions. His three points of diver- 
gence from the orthodoxy of the day were : (1 ), That 
Adam's sin was purely personal, and affected none but 
himself; (2), That each man is born into the world 
with as incorrupt a soul as Adam's before the fall, and 
only falls under sin from temptation and evil example ; 
(3), That children who die in infancy, being untainted, 
are saved without baptism. The last of these three 
propositions would now be held almost universally 
true, in so far as it asserts the salvation of all who die 
in infancy ; but when he states that it is because they 
are born untainted by sin, all Calvinists and many 
others demur, and rather assert that, though they are 
conceived in sin, they are regenerated at death by the 
eternal Spirit of God; and few, if any, though they 
might believe in baptismal regeneration, would be so 
bold as to declare that any infant was lost for the lack 
of water baptism. The first two propositions, how- 
7 



74 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

ever, that Adam's sin was purely personal, and that all 
men are born holy, are tlie logical premises from which 
flows the whole system of salvation by works. On 
this matter Augustine had the Scriptures and all sound 
reason at his back in contending with the monk. The 
controversy continued many years, and in no fewer 
than fifteen treatises. Augustine won the day, and 
triumphed over his opponent, giving to the church a 
noble body of writings, which have been the text of 
nearly all theological study ever since. The doc- 
trine of the federal headship of Adam, and its correl- 
ative, the federal headship of Christ, and the doctrine 
of the universal necessity of regeneration in order to 
salvation, were, by Augustine, so firmly implanted in 
the foundations of dogmatic theology as to have made 
futile all subsequent attempts to uproot them from the 
faith of Christendom. 

Mention must be made particularly of Augustine's 
City of God, his greatest work, and his Confessions, 
which have already been alluded to, and which have 
been considered a precious treasure by devout persons 
for fifteen hundred years. 

Now must be noted a remarkable fact, that though 
Augustine overcame Pelagianism then, Pelagianism 
overcame the great body of the church in the ages 
which followed. The doctrines of natural purity and 
of salvation by works had a fascination for a worldly 
church, and as Christianity progressed in the favor of 
earthly powers, the great principle of salvation by 
grace through faith was gradually displaced by this 
human substitute, and the whole popish system of 
good works, penances and voluntary sufferings, which 



AURELIUS AUGUSTINE. 75 

a corrupt priesthood offered men in place of the blood 
of Christ, may be traced to this fundamental error. 
The development of this heresy is the history of the 
papacy, and the Reformation of the sixteenth century 
was the recoil from it to the ancient doctrine of Au- 
gustine and the Apostle Paul. 

Aurelius Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, passed 
away on the 28th of August, 430, at the age of seventy- 
five, while the Vandals of the north were thundering at 
the gates. Hippo fell, but not till its beloved bishop 
had been transported to a " city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God." 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Mohammed, a Travesty of Christ. 

SUPEESTITIOUS people are always looking for 
the supernatural, and it grows out of their igno- 
rance ofthe natural. The supernatural and the natu- 
ral cannot be wholly separated; God and his angels 
are concerned with all the phenomena of the world ; 
but the divine presence is ordinarily manifested through 
natural laws. Even in the spiritual realm the opera- 
tions of divine power respect the laws of mind. The 
reason is, God made matter and mind, giving them 
properties and laws, and he is the least likely to ignore 
them. Even in regeneration, and in the answers to 
prayer, God respects his own laws. So the supernat- 
ural usually manifests itself in the natural. A man 
prays for barns of grain ; his prayer is answered, not 
by angelic servants measuring out wheat to fill his 
bins, but by a blessing upon seed-sowing and harvest. 
The blessing comes through the sunshine, the rain, 
and faithful toil. 

But superstitious people are always looking for su- 
pernatural manifestations of the supernatural. They 
look for them in dreams, strange events in nature, and 
amongst mankind. The superstitious are ignorant; 
"When they become educated to understand natural 
causes and effects they cannot be superstitious. Ig- 
norance is the mother of superstition, and ignorant 

76 



MOHAMMED, A TKAVESTY OF CHRIST. 77 

people are easily imposed upon. Ignorance and su- 
perstition were the basis of Mohammedanism. 

Mohammed professed to be inspired, to have super- 
natural power, and the people believed him, because, 
being ignorant, they were superstitious, and were look- 
ing for supernatural manifestations. In other words, 
they believed in Mohammed because they wished to ; 
he was what they were seeking. Mohammedanism 
would never have been possible in a civilized and ed- 
ucated community. 

But are men never to accept supernatural manifes- 
tations? What about the miracles of Jesus Christ? 
Yes, we are to accept manifestations of the supernatu- 
ral when we are given sufficient reasons based upon 
the natural. "We must have indisputable natural 
proofs. The pretended manifestations of the spiritu- 
alists will not stand the tests of natural experiment. 
They must be made in the dark, or in cabinets. But 
the miracles of Christ were done in the open day, and 
before the faces of thousands. All could apply every 
natural test. The supernatural must be attested by 
the natural. God calls upon men to believe many 
things they cannot understand, but never without evi- 
dence which they can understand. This is faith, and it 
is rational. But superstition believes in the alleged su- 
pernatural without trustworthy natural evidence. True 
religion calls upon men to believe in the supernatural, 
gives good reasons, and courts investigation ; supersti- 
tion offers " lying wonders," and covers them with 
mystery. 

Mohammed's marvellous success in establishing his 
system grew out of the fact that the people being ig- 



7S THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

norant, and he claiming supernatural powers, gave 
them just what their superstitious minds required. If 
a man can delude people into believing him to be in 
direct communication with heaven, and has wit enough 
to play his part well, the only limit to his power is the 
number of his followers. It was so with Mohammed ; 
it was so with Buddha; with Brigham Young, the 
Mormon ; it is so with the papacy. To all these pre- 
tenders, these travesties of Christ, we say, show us 
proofs in natural effects, proofs that will stand the test 
of experiment and we will believe you. Turn the 
water to wine, and let us drink it ; open the eyes of 
the blind, open the ears of the deaf, loose dumb tongues, 
heal the lame and the sick ; raise the dead, and let us 
see, hear and feel those who are the subjects of super- 
natural power, and we will believe you. This is what 
Christianity did. 

Mohammedanism, though based upon human super- 
stition, was greatly prospered, and spread with mar- 
vellous rapidity over a large portion of the old world ; 
and now, twelve hundred years after the death of its 
founder, there are not far from two hundred millions of 
Moslems. 

Mohammed was born in Mecca, a seaport town of 
Arabia, on the Bed Sea, about the year 570 A. D. His 
father never lived to see him, and his mother was a 
poor widow. A Bedouin woman of the desert nour- 
ished him, and at six years of age his mother died. His 
uncle, Abu Talib, who had two wives and ten children, 
took care of the unfortunate orphan. He suffered 
greatly from headaches and convulsions. Abu Talib 
took him on commercial journeys, and in this way he 



MOHAMMED, A TRAVESTY OF CHRIST. 79 

saw something of Palestine and Egypt, as well as Ara- 
bia. He lived rather a hard life, driving camels and 
herding sheep, and in after years declared that God 
never called a prophet who had not before been a 
shepherd. 

At the age of twenty-five he married a rich widow, 
Chadijah, who was his senior by fifteen years. By her 
he had six children, all of whom died early, except 
Fatima. He adopted a so^, Ali, who afterwards be- 
came famous. While traveling with his uncle, he was 
thrown much with Jews and Christians. He learned 
about all the religious truth he ever knew from them 
and from a sect of Arabians called Hanifs or "Peni- 
tents." These religionists were protestants against the 
effete idolatry of the country, and held to the belief 
that there is one God, and that at last all men must be 
judged by him. These ideas took deep hold on Mo- 
hammed's mind, and he spent much time in solitary 
reflection upon them. He was ignorant of letters, and 
was subject to epileptic fits. Such a person would 
seem to be poorly adapted to gain the mastery of mil- 
lions of men, but "truth is stranger than fiction," and 
here we have a man who could not even read and 
write, who, nevertheless, from being a camel driver, 
rose to be one of the most potent factors in human 
history. But Mohammed was a man of extraordinary 
natural endowments, a genius who has had few supe- 
riors in intellectual power and force of character among 
men. What he knew he gathered from others, and his 
own works were dictated to be taken down by other 
hands. 

In a wild solitude of the desert, not many miles from 



80 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

Mecca, in the year 610 A. D., lie received his first al- 
leged revelation from heaven. It is probable that his 
own superstition and fanaticism were great enough to 
make him believe that he had a divine mission, at least 
in the early part of his career. He declared that the 
angel Gabriel came to him and said : " I am Gabriel, 
and thou art Mohammed, the prophet of God. Fear 
not!" He was tempted to commit suicide, but was 
dissuaded from it, unfortunately for the world, per- 
haps, by his wife, who persuaded him to believe the 
heavenly vision. Gabriel and he were in frequent 
communication for a period of twenty years, and dur- 
ing this period the materials afterwards put together as 
the Koran were taken down. "Whenever Mohammed 
wished to promulgate a rule or law for his followers, 
he got a revelation from heaven, and there could be no 
resistance to divine decrees. His great genius con- 
sisted in his being able to devise what so many would 
be willing to receive as divine, and to set up a system 
with force enough to conquer a large portion of the 
world. Any impostor could say he was inspired, but 
it required an impostor of no mean abilities to make 
the Koran and to create Mohammedanism. 

Having converted his own family, he began preach- 
ing, at Mecca, against the idolatry of the day. "What 
he taught was a mixture of Judaism, Christianity and 
heathenism. It was professedly a restoration of the 
faith of Abraham, but would have been scorned by the 
great father of the faithful. The best thing in Mo- 
hammedanism is that it teaches monotheism, and an 
eternal judgment with everlasting rewards and punish- 
ments. It also forbade the use of intoxicants and the 



MOHAMMED, A TRAVESTY OF CHRIST. 81 

eating of swine flesh. It taught the doctrine of fatal- 
ism, and that absolute submission [Islam) to the will 
of God. is the first duty. Moslem is derived from Is- 
lam, and is a term applied to all the followers of Mo- 
hammed. Prayer, fastiug, giving of alms, and pilgrim- 
ages were strictly enjoined. 

On the other hand, Mohammed denied the divinity 
of Christ, and made him second to himself. He al- 
lowed polygamy and concubinage, and promised to the 
faithful a paradise where they could luxuriate amongst 
fine fruits, flowers, fountains, and beautiful maidens. 
He called upon his followers to put all Jews and Chris- 
tians to the sword, and to exact tribute from all hea- 
thens. 

Of the Koran it may be said, that whereas it is the 
greatest rival of the Bible, it falls infinitely below it in 
every respect. Gibbon says : "It sometimes crawls in 
the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds." Goethe 
writes : " The style is terrible, severe, and at times 
truly sublime.' 1 Thomas Carlyle calls it " the confused 
ferment of a great, rude human soul, rude, untutored, 
that cannot even read, but fervent, earnest, struggling 
vehemently to utter itself; yet a wearisome, confused 
jumble, with endless iterations." 

Mohammed had considerable success in endeavoring 
to win followers in Mecca, but his religion excited 
fierce persecution, so that he was obliged to fly, with 
all who believed in him, in the year 622, to Medina. 
This flight is called the " Hegira," and marks the be- 
ginning of the Mohammedan organization. The peo- 
ple of Medina acknowledged his claims, and his power 
waxed very great. His followers having increased in 



82 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

numbers, lie began a war of conquest, the sword being 
from this time his great instrument of conversion. 
Eight years after the Hegira, or in 630 A. D., he en- 
tered Mecca in triumph, and became master of Arabia, 
his followers shouting in every conflict, " There is no 
God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." Two 
years afterwards he made a pilgrimage to Mecca at the 
head of forty thousand Moslems. 

2fot long after his return to Medina he died of a vio- 
lent fever, in the arms of his favorite wife, Ayesha, (for 
by this time he had several wives,) in the sixty-third 
year of his age. His last words were. "The Lord de- 
stroy the Jews and the Christians ! Let his anger be 
kindled against those who turn the tombs of their pro- 
phets into places of worship! Let Islam alone reign 
in Arabia! Gabriel, come close to me! Lord, grant 
me pardon! Eternity in paradise! Pardon!" 

The weakness of the Byzantine empire, and the rival- 
ries of the Eastern and Western Churches, gave Moham- 
medanism a great opportunity for its religious and politi- 
cal conquests. The battle cry, " Before you is paradise ; 
behind you are death and hell !" tired the zeal of the Mos- 
lems. Before Mohammed died they had swept Arabia, 
and a. vast power was rising which threatened the civil- 
ized world. The apotheosis of their prophet caused 
no diminution iu the fierce enthusiasm of the Moslems. 
It was not so much religious zeal as the thirst for con- 
quest., It had been the same with Mohammed. Early 
in his public life his mission as a religious reformer 
was lost in the political schemer and worldly con- 
queror. Religious enthusiasm, which is the most 
potent factor in humanity, furnished the means for 



MOHAMMED, A TEAYESTY OF CHRIST. 83 

ambitious men to use in the establishment of a great 
empire. They subdued Palestine, Syria, Egypt, North 
Africa, and the South of Spain. They even crossed 
the Pyrenees, threatening Rome itself. But they were 
defeated at Tours, in 732 A. D., by Charles Martel, 
and a period put to their proud career. But for this 
timely defeat, the Mohammedans would have over- 
run Europe and changed the face of civilization. God, 
however, would not have it so. The ark of the world's 
salvation was in the keeping of the Christians of West- 
ern Europe, and Charles Martel was the voice of God 
calling a halt to the march of Islam. 

But though the tide was stayed in the West, it still 
extended itself in the East. In the ninth century the 
Moslems conquered Persia, Afghanistan, and a consid- 
erable portion of India. In the eleventh century the 
Seljuk Turks overcame the Arabs, but adopted their 
religion. In the fifteenth century (1453), the Turks 
captured Constantinople and overturned the Byzantine 
empire. The magnificent church of St. Sophia was 
converted into a mosque, and the Greek Christians 
were reduced to a state of slavery. Intoxicated with 
the glory of this magnificent conquest, they were not 
satisfied, but cast longing glances further westward, 
and again the safety of the States of Northern and 
Western Europe were endangered by the Moslem 
power. They were defeated before Yienna in 1683, 
and driven back. The whole of Europe had been 
aroused, and all rival powers would have combined, if 
necessary, against the common enemy. One of Luth- 
er's most popular hymns was a prayer for deliverance 
from the papists and the Turks; and the Anglican 



84: THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Liturgy, in the collect for "Good Friday," included 
a petition for "mercy upon all Turks, as well as upon 
Jews, infidels and heretics." The German diets, dur- 
ing the Reformation period, were held almost as much 
to devise measures against the Turks as the Lutherans. 
The Turks were the enemies of all forms of religion 
except their own. Their propagandism was by the 
sword, and death was the penalty for not being a Mos- 
lem, as for attempting to lead one from his faith. Mo- 
hammedanism was bad enough, but the brutal arro- 
gance of the Turks was even worse. Their rule has 
been a blight in every country where they have gone. 
In every case the people of the subject races have 
bitterly hated them, only awaiting an opportunity for 
revenge. They have exacted oppressive tribute from 
the conquered, and have conferred no compensating 
advantages by their government. Their treatment of 
the Greeks and other subject nations has been an out- 
rage upon humanity. The massacres in Damascus in 
1860, in Bulgaria in 1877, and in Alexandria in 1882, 
are sufficient proof that the fierce spirit of the Moham- 
medan Turks has never changed. 

But the Turk is an intruder in Europe. He should 
rightfully have been driven back long since into Asia. 
He holds the most important strategic point in Europe, 
the gateway of two seas, and the path between three 
continents. He is tolerated and sustained by the jeal- 
ous governments of Europe, lest the "balance of 
power " should be disturbed. Turkey in Europe would 
long since have been divided but for the difficulty of 
answering the question, Who shall have Constanti- 
nople? Bussia dreams of a happy day, when she will 



MOHAMMED, A TEAVESTY OF CHRIST. 85 

sit queen of the Bosphorus, hold the door to her own 
southern possessions, and be gate-keeper of the Orient. 
On the other hand, England cannot allow Russia to 
come between her and the Indian empire ; nor would 
it be safe for Germany and Austria if the Colossus of 
the North should gain possession of the stronghold of 
Southeastern Europe. In the impossibility of decid- 
ing who shall have Constantinople, no one of the na- 
tions gets it, and European diplomacy keeps the Turk, 
now called the "sick man," in his mortgaged house, 
which he stole in former days. 

The Turks have lost heavily in the mutations of 
later times. Greece became independent in 1832. 
Egypt is still tributary to the sultan, but more de- 
pendent upon Great Britain than upon Turkey. By 
the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, Bulgaria was made inde- 
pendent, and Herzegovina was attached to Austria, 
while England secured Cyprus by purchase. In 1880, 
at another conference in Berlin, Montenegro and Greece 
were enlarged at the expense of Turkey. The process 
of disintegration will go on, and the decaying mass 
will fall to pieces. "The mills of the gods grind slow, 
but they grind exceeding fine"; and the Turk, reeking 
with crime, stands before the bar of history to answer 
for his deeds. Nations have no existence in the next 
world ; and whereas individual rulers are punished for 
their misdeeds, both in private and public life, on 
earth and in eternity, governments have their debt of 
guilt to pay in time. The Mohammedan empire has 
long been undergoing a well-merited punishment be- 
fore the nations. It has been pilloried, and a gradual 
dismemberment inflicted, which shall continue until its 



86 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

history is closed and itself laid away forever in the tomh 
of the dead past. Even now one-third of the Mos- 
lem population is under the dominion of the Chris- 
tian nations of Russia, France, Austria, and England. 
Great has been the Moslem power; greater still its 
guilt. Its doom is coming surely; and, when Islam 
shall be dead and buried out of sight, there will be no 
mourners to shed tears over its grave. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Ckusades : a Eomance of Eeligion. 

IN the year 1096 a strange spectacle appeared in 
the countries of Southeastern Europe. Marching 
from the west, came a great host of eighty thousand, 
men, women, and children, bearing banners marked 
with the cross, the symbol of Christianity. They car- 
ried in their hands, however, not "the sword of the 
Spirit which is the word of God," but carnal weapons 
of steel. They sang songs, and shouted in anticipa- 
tion of a victory which they expected to win, awaken- 
ing strange echoes among the hills. A sacred goose 
and a goat were carried in the van of this army, and, 
monstrous superstition, they were said to be rilled 
with the Holy Ghost. The leader of the advancing 
host was a monk, "Peter the Hermit," who walked 
before, shod with sandals, and wearing, in ostentatious 
humility, a rope about his waist. . 

Such were the Crusaders of the eleventh century, 
marching towards the Holy Land, to rescue the city 
of Jerusalem from the "infidels" or Turks. Omar, 
the successor of Mohammed, had conquered Syria, 
and occupied Jerusalem, building there a magnificent 
mosque, for the Moslems as well as the Christians es- 
teemed it a holy city. The population of the place at 
the time of which we write was about eight thousand, 
whose chief support was derived from the pilgrims, 

87 



88 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

both Moslem and Christian, who resorted thither. 
The Mosque of Omar and the Holy Sepulchre were the 
objects of profound religious veneration, which drew 
devotees from many countries. 

" Peter the Hermit" was a native of Amiens, in 
France. When a pilgrim he had been cruelly op- 
pressed by the Turks. Returning to Europe, he de- 
termined upon vengeance, and upon delivering the city 
of Christ from the "infidels." In Rome he appeared 
before Pope Urban II., and urged the undertaking of 
a vast scheme for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, 
which had long been entertained by the occupants of 
the papal chair. 

Urban commissioned Peter to preach the great 
cause, and, as all who enlisted wore the symbol of the 
cross, it was called the "Crusade." The fanatical 
monk was very successful in inflaming the religious 
zeal of the common people and the nobility in what 
was regarded as an undertaking than which nothing 
could be more acceptable to God. Urban himself, in 
a council held at Clermont, indorsed the movement, 
and did all he could to give it a start. It was deter- 
mined to arm the Christian world against the sacrile- 
gious Turks, who were profaning the city of God. 

The scheme met with most favor in France, though 
thousands responded to the call from every country of 
Western and Southern Europe. Unbounded enthusi- 
asm was kindled, and it seemed as if the entire popu- 
lation of the West were about to be poured into Asia. 
The nobles sold their lands to raise money for fitting 
out expeditions, the church and thrifty tradesmen buy- 
ing them at advantageous rates. The poorest barons 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 89 

sacrificed everything for the sacred cause, and gath- 
ered their retainers about them to join the great army. 
Rich and poor, high and low, adopted the spirit of " Pe- 
ter the Hermit." Besides those who enlisted from 
religious sentiment, there were multitudes who were 
actuated by a very different motive. An innumerable 
host of beggars, slaves, thieves, murderers, abandoned 
men and women, and profligates of all kinds, mingled 
w x ith the throng, hoping to find opportunities in the 
disorder incident to such an expedition for indulging 
their desires. 

The general rendezvous was to be Constantinople, 
and thither all eager footsteps tended. Peter the Her- 
mit had a following of eighty thousand. Gibbon, in 
commenting upon the class of men who composed, in 
large part, this motley crowd, said : "At the voice of 
their pastors, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, 
arose by thousands to redeem their souls by repeating 
on the infidels the same deeds which they had exer- 
cised against their Christian brethren." 

The first exploit of the advancing host was in Hun- 
gary, where a small Christian city refused to give up 
all its provisions to the hungry crusaders. This im- 
piety was punished by the city being pillaged and the 
inhabitants put to the sword. This was not the most 
auspicious beginning possible, but still the mighty 
host pressed on. Their reputation preceded them, 
however, and the people rose up in arms to resist 
their approach, and the greater part of no less than 
three armies was cut to pieces in Hungary. However, 
the indomitable Peter reached Constantinople with a 
formidable following. 



90 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

Alexius Commenus, a wise sovereign, was at that 
time on the throne of the eastern empire. Having 
heard of the depreciations of these romantic religion- 
ists and their camp followers, he was anxious to avoid 
any collision with them ; so he wisely put on the air 
of friendship, and helped them through his dominions 
as rapidly as possible. His daughter, Anna Commena, 
an accomplished princess, who wrote an excellent his- 
tory of her own times, gave, among many other inci- 
dents of a like nature, one which illustrates well the 
character of the crusaders. Their chiefs being ad- 
mitted to an audience with the emperor, who was 
seated upon a throne surrounded by all the pomp of 
oriental splendor, one of the captains, a French count, 
stepped up and seated himself by the monarch's side, 
saying, "What a pretty sort of emperor is this, who 
places himself above such men as we are!" Earl 
Baldwin, one of the crusaders, disgusted at this auda- 
cious insolence of his fellow-countryman, sprang after 
the intruder, and dragged him from the assembly. 
Alexius, with wise moderation, showed great tolera- 
tion for these fanatics, and hastened to prepare vessels 
for setting them safely on the other side of the Bos- 
phorus. 

Finding themselves in Asia at last, they madly rushed 
upon the infidels, confident of such a victory as befitted 
the holiness of their cause. But heaven did not ac- 
knowledge such defenders of the faith, and they were 
mercilessly cut to pieces by the Turks, under Soly- 
man, the sultan of Nice. The men were put to the 
sword, and the women reserved for their seraglios. So 
vanished the first expedition. 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 91 

Peter the Hermit returned, "a sadder and a wiser 
man," to France, where he spent the remainder of his 
days in religious retirement as prior of an abbey at 
Huy, in the diocese of Liege. There he died, July 7, 
1115. 

This expedition was but the first wave which broke 
upon the shores of Asia, in front of a vast tide that was 
rising from the West. Another horde of several hun- 
dred thousand was arriving at Constantinople, com- 
manded by many of the foremost men of Europe, 
among whom were Godfrey of Bouillon, and Robert, 
Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Con- 
queror. Many of the nobles, as well as others, had 
sold or mortgaged their estates to raise money for the 
expedition, though there was one — Bohemond, son of 
Robert of Guiscard, the conqueror of Sicily, a brave 
and able soldier — who had nothing to sell or mortgage, 
and could only give his sword. Bohemond was at- 
tended by his gallant and accomplished cousin, Tan- 
cred, who figured conspicuously in Tasso's great epic, 
Gierusalemme Liberata. 

The coming of these religious adventurers, and their 
countless followers of every kind, gave the Emperor 
Alexius great concern. They behaved with insuffer- 
able insolence towards the peaceable citizens about 
them, considering that the holy mission on which they 
were engaged gave them license to indulge their pro- 
pensities at pleasure, and to take whatever their -neces- 
sities demanded without compensation. Indeed, it was 
seriously proposed by them to take Constantinople pre- 
paratory to the conquest of the East. It was not sur- 
prising that between such people and the inhabitants 



92 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

of the city there should have been frequent collisions 
and bloodshed, and that they quarrelled and came to 
blows among themselves. The emperor, in great alarm, 
once more offered his ships, and sent the intruders 
on, even loading them with presents to hasten their 
journey. 

The army of the crusaders was reviewed near Nice, 
and was found to consist of 600,000 foot, including 
many women, and 100,000 horse. We have no ac- 
counts of how this host was victualled, but it could 
hardly be in any other way than by devouring, like lo- 
custs, the substance of the countries through which 
they passed. The Venetians refused to send their ves- 
sels to supply provisions, because they could not afford 
to forfeit the goodwill of their best commercial friends, 
the Mohammedans. The cities of Genoa and Pisa, 
however, took advantage of the opportunity, and did a 
thriving trade by selling supplies to the crusaders along 
the coast of Asia Minor. This was the beginning of 
Genoese wealth and splendor. 

The Turks could not stand against the momentum of 
such a host, who were able to overwhelm them by the 
sheer force of numbers, and besides the crusading sol- 
diers were clad in mail and well armed. The Moham- 
medans were twice defeated, and Bohemond made 
himself master of the country of Antioch. Baldwin, 
the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, penetrated Meso- 
potamia, and also captured Edessa. At length, the 
banners of the crusaders floated before Jerusalem, 
though, through many losses by famine, sickness, and 
battle, the great host was reduced to twenty thousand 
men. Nothing daunted, however, now that they were 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OP RELIGION. 93 

in sight of the realization of their hopes, they attacked 
the garrison, of twice their own numbers, and after a 
siege of five weeks, took the city by storm, July 15, 
1099. 

This way of propagating the kingdom of heaven, by 
fire and sword, under the highest ecclesiastical sanc- 
tion, shows how far astray the church had gone at that 
day, and how completely it had forgotten the precepts 
of its Master. As soon as they had taken Jerusalem, 
these soldiers of the cross put the whole Mohammedan 
and Jewish population of the city to death, horribly 
butchering men, women, and children, till the streets 
flowed with blood. After this inhuman massacre, the 
Christians went in solemn procession to the place 
where they were informed the body of Jesus had 
lain, and there expressed their holy ardor in a flood 
of tears. Thus was the Holy Sepulchre rescued 
from the impious Mohammedans, and came into the 
possession of Christians whose hands were reeking 
with murder. This shows the folly of attempting to 
have a Christianity without the Bible, and a church, 
with an infallible human head. 

The solemn farce culminated in the proclamation of 
Godfrey of Bouillon as king of Jerusalem. The con- 
quered territory w T as divided into three petty states,, 
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Edessa ; and after some years, 
a fourth was added, Tripoli in Syria. These in turn 
were cut up to make realms for minor lords. Counts 
of Joppa, and marquises of Galilee, Sidon, Acre, 
Cesarea, and such like, presided over these countries 
which had been wrested from the Turks. 

The enthusiasm of Christendom was again aroused 



94 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

by the conquest of Edessa by the Mohammedans, and 
another tidal wave arose in the "West. In the year 
1146, or fifty years after the first crusade under Peter 
the Hermit, two hundred thousand Italians, French, and 
Germans, set out for the Holy Land, under the command 
of Hugh, brother of Philip I. of France. This expedi- 
tion was utterly routed and cut to pieces by the Turks, 
and their leader died forsaken in Asia. This was a 
great disappointment to the garrison of crusaders hold- 
ing the conquered territory, for their numbers were 
rapidly diminishing, and the situation in Jerusalem as- 
sumed a threatening aspect. Even the monks had to 
take up arms in the common defence, and the orders 
of Templars and Hospitallers assumed the character of 
military organizations. The two orders of knights 
bearing these names afterwards became famous, and 
fought against each other as fiercely as they had con- 
tended with the infidel Turks. 

Pope Eugenius II. came to the rescue by commis- 
sioning St. Bernard to preach the crusade in France. 
This enthusiastic and fanatical monk was very success- 
ful in firing the hearts of the people with the sentiment 
which burned in his own. Louis VII., king of France, 
and Conrad III., emperor of Germany, set the example 
by taking up the cross, and three hundred thousand 
men rallied to their standards. But the undertaking 
was a failure, and the great army melted away before 
the fierce attacks of the Turks, and the two monarchs 
returned alone to Europe, far poorer than they set out. 

"While the Turks and Christians in Palestine were 
cutting each other to pieces, a new star was arising on 
the horizon. Saladin, nephew of the sultan of Egypt, 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 95 

who now appeared, was one of the most remarkable of 
all the men who have figured upon the pages of hu- 
man history. He overran Syria, Arabia, Persia and 
Mesopotamia, and now formed the design of conquer- 
ing Jerusalem, which was under the dominion of the 
Christian prince, Guy of Lusignan. 

Guy was defeated and made prisoner, but Saladin 
treated him with extraordinary generosity and cour- 
tesy. He gave him his liberty, only exacting an oath 
that he would never take up arms against his deliverer ; 
but Guy was unfaithful to his vow. The clemency of 
the noble Saladin was manifested in his treatment of 
the Christians on his entry into Jerusalem. The 
women cast themselves at his feet, imploring him to 
show mercy to their husbands and brothers; but he 
needed no entreaty to move him to compassion; he 
spared the lives of all the captives, in splendid contrast 
with the treatment of prisoners by the Christians when 
they took Jerusalem. He even restored to them the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre, though himself a Mo- 
hammedan, and allowed no one to interfere with them 
in the exercise of their religion. 

But the papal See, which had originated the crusades, 
was unwilling to give up the great undertaking, and 
Clement III., alarmed at the conquests of Saladin, be- 
gan to stir again the spirit of conquest. The rescue of 
the tomb of Christ from the possession of the infidels 
on religious considerations, had long before become 
but a means for the aggrandizement of the papal do- 
minion. 

Philip Augustus, king of France, Frederick Barba- 
rossa, king of Germany, and Richard Coeur de Lion, 



96 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

king of England, took up the sacred cause, and armed 
prodigious multitudes of their subjects to make war 
upon Saladin. Frederick was drowned in attempting 
to ford a swollen river; Philip, overcome by jealousy 
of the English king, returned to France, and left Rich- 
ard sole competitor with the great Saladin for the do- 
minion of the Holy City. Richard did indeed win some 
unavailing victories over Saladin, and even achieved 
the honor of unhorsing him in battle, but he was un- 
able to successfully resist the superior prowess of his 
foes, and finally abandoned the whole scheme, return- 
ing home with but one vessel. 

The illustrious Saladin died soon afterwards, in 1195, 
leaving a splendid name among those of the greatest 
of military chieftains and princes. In his last illness 
he had the ensigns which floated above his palace 
taken down, and in their stead a winding sheet ex- 
hibited, while a slave proclaimed, "This is all that 
Saladin, the conqueror of the East, has obtained by his 
victories!" 

The next crusade never reached Asia, but resulted 
in the capture of Constantinople, and the overthrow of 
the Eastern empire by Baldwin, who had himself elected 
emperor. This, however, did not satisfy the crusading 
spirit, and another crusade was called for in 1212. 
Thousands of children offered themselves, nor could 
they be suppressed; but, mad with religious enthusi- 
asm, they pressed towards the Holy Land. These 
swarms melted away before they reached the goal of 
their hopes. Two armies, organized in 1217, by Count 
"William of Holland, and Andrew II. of Hungary, re- 
spectively, started to the East; but Andrew, having 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 97 

withdrawn with his best troops, the remainder of the 
host went to Egypt on a marauding expedition, and 
were destroyed in the Delta of the Nile. 

Frederick II. was held responsible for this failure, 
because he had not fulfilled his promise to enter the 
crusade. At length, urged by the pope, Frederic em- 
barked at Brundusium ; but he soon came back, pro- 
testing that he was sick. The pope, out of patience, 
placed him under the ban. The year following, how- 
ever, Frederick did actually go to the Holy Land, and 
was so successful as to reconquer Palestine, and have 
himself crowned king of Jerusalem. He then returned 
to Europe, defying the excommunication of the pope. 

Another great revolution was now about to take 
place in Asia. Genghis-Khan, with his Tartars, came 
down from the regions beyond Caucasus, like wolves 
seeking their prey. They were the enemies of all those 
who had so long contended for the possession of the 
disputed country of the children of Jacob. The Tar- 
tars put to the sword all Jews, Christians, and Turks, 
in an indiscriminate slaughter. The Christians united 
their forces to repel the barbarous invaders, but the 
fierce onslaught from the northeast was too strong for 
them, and they were utterly routed. They were able 
to retain but a few points on the sea coast. To pre- 
vent their entire destruction, Louis IX. of France, 
known in history under the title of Saint Louis, fitted 
out the last of the crusades. 

Louis IX. was a king well qualified to lead his sub- 
jects in the paths of peaceful prosperity, and could 
have done much to repair the disastrous results of the 
religious madness which had afnictecl the French in 
9 



98 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

common with other nations of Western Europe. But; 
unfortunately, lie fancied, in a delirium of fever, that he 
had a call from heaven to deliver the Holy Sepulchre 
from the infidels. In vain did his counsellors and 
queen urge him to refrain from so bootless an under- 
taking. There were others to encourage him in so 
holy a design, and when he recovered from sickness, 
he did not overcome the hallucination of a divine call 
to institute another crusade. After four years of pre- 
paration, an immense host set out for the Orient, led 
by the king and queen, and all the knights of France. 
They began by capturing Cyprus, and then landed in 
Egypt to make war upon the Sultan Melecsala. This 
potentate was alarmed at the formidable appearance of 
the invaders, and begged for terms of peace. The con- 
fident warriors from the "West, however, refused any ar- 
rangement of a pacific nature. They had come for 
conquest, and must have it at the point of the sword. 
They soon had abundant reason to repent their confi- 
dence, for sickness so severely thinned their ranks as 
to make them an easy conquest for Almoadin, the son 
of Melecsala. The defeat of the Christians was over- 
whelming. Louis and two of his brothers were taken 
prisoners, while another brother was killed in battle. 
The king, finding himself in the hands of the enemy 
whom he had so recently disdained, offered an enor- 
mous sum for his liberty, and that of his fellow-prison- 
ers. But such was the generosity of his conqueror, 
that one-fifth of the amount was remitted. Louis paid 
his ransom and returned to France. It might have 
been supposed that this disastrous experiment would 
have been enough to satisfy the zeal of the French 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 99 

king, but it was not ; and after some years, encouraged 
by the pope, who gave him a handsome share of the 
revenues of the church, he gathered another great 
force to renew the attempt to win glory as a soldier of 
the cross. This time it was proposed to begin by the 
conquest and conversion of the Moors of Tunis. This 
attempt was also attended with disaster, for not only 
was the army defeated, but the king himself, and his 
son, perished on the foreign shore with the plague. So 
died Louis IX., king of France, who, though he failed 
in the great effort of his life to redeem the Holy Land 
from the infidels, yet, by his devotion to what he con- 
sidered a noble cause, won for himself a place on the 
page of history, and entered his name in the catalogue 
of Roman Catholic saints. His death occurred August 
24, 1270, and this put an end to the long story of the 
crusades — the ancient romance of religion. 

During the period of one hundred and seventy-four 
years from the beginning of the first crusade under 
Peter the Hermit to the death of Louis IX., two mil- 
lions of Europeans had perished by famine, pestilence, 
and sword, in the attempt to aggrandize the papal 
throne by religious conquests in the East. Untold 
treasure had also been expended, and millions of men 
impoverished for life. In some ways good was done, 
for whereas much of the best blood of Europe was 
shed in the absurd undertaking, many from the vicious 
classes were also sacrificed, and society thereby puri- 
fied. But the greatest and most lasting benefit was 
the changing of the ownership of great bodies of land 
all over Europe, and its being divided up into small 
holdings ; for when the large land-owners became in- 



100 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

fatuated with, the spirit of the crusades, they were 
obliged to divide up their estates and sell them to 
thrifty people, who had saved money from the results 
of their toil. This introduced into the life of the na- 
tions a new element of political power, and a class of 
independent, aspiring spirits arose, whose descendants 
were going to exercise great influence in the struggles 
for civil and religious liberty which revolutionized the 
world in the sixteenth and later centuries. The bur- 
roughs and towns, which had been tied down by a sort 
of vassalage to the nobles, were made free by purchase, 
when the rights and privileges which had long inhered 
in a small class were put on the market to procure 
money for the crusades. Thereafter many of them 
could exercise, almost untrammelled, the functions of 
local government. Thus the folly of the papal See in 
inciting its subjects to a religious war was the means 
of setting in motion certain causes which, long after- 
wards, in the providence of God, contributed towards 
the emancipation of a large portion of Europe from the 
tyranny of the church. That is the best lesson to ba 
drawn from the strange fanaticism which we have been 
considering. 

It remains only to add, that an incident of the cru- 
sades was the development of the chivalry and knight- 
hood which played such important parts in the social 
and political, as well as religious, life of those early 
times, and also the creation of the literature called 
"Romance" The chivalrous knights who were fortu- 
nate enough to return alive from the holy Avars re- 
ceived the warmest praises of their countrymen for 
their valor and faith. Their heroic deeds and strange 



THE CRUSADES : A ROMANCE OF RELIGION. 101 

adventures were sung by bards and minstrels. Their 
exploits were recorded in a species of composition 
called Romances, from the name of the dialect in which 
they were written. A degenerate Latin was, at the be- 
ginning of the ninth century, the common tongue of 
France, but afterwards there arose a mixture of the 
Frank and Latin, or Roman, which was called Roman, 
or Romance. This was the language in which these 
wonderful stories, part fact and part fiction, were com- 
posed, and so they were called Romances. These writ- 
ings being the forerunners of innumerable books in 
that class of literature, they have given their name to 
all marvellous tales. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Dawn of the Reformation. — John Wickliffe. 

THE most beautiful phenomenon in nature is morn- 
ing — the birth of day. The dim candles in the 
sky have burned low, but behind the pale curtains a 
new light is turned on. There is a hush of expectation ; 
no hour so still as dawn. Some momentous event is 
about to take place. A bird wakes up and sings a note 
or two, then stops to listen. One great star, like that 
of Bethlehem, stands in the East, poised over the natal 
couch. Suddenly a wide glory bursts behind the ho- 
rizon ; the brightness of it shines through the clouds, 
and ethereal gold drips from their fringes upon the 
mountains and the sea. There is a nutter of excited 
congratulation between heaven and earth. The day is 
born, the firmament is singing, and few mortals either 
see or hear, but when man opens his casement the 
celestial company have closed up their windows and 
gone home. 

One of the brightest of all days was the religious 
revolution, or Reformation, of the sixteenth century. 
In the light and life of it the human race have gone 
further and done more than in all the previous history 
of the world. When the Reformation came the heavens 
rejoiced, and the earth has been clapping its hands 
ever since. As the dawn began to show itself, a clear 
star beamed on high ; after a time it was followed by 

102 



DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. — WICKXIFFE. 103 

another, and then the day came. The two morning 
stars of the Reformation were John Wickliffe and John 
Huss; one shone over England, the other over Bo- 
hemia, the centre of Europe. 

Some conception of the moral darkness which pre- 
ceded the Reformation may be gained from a remark- 
able publication of the fourteenth century, by a Roman 
Catholic, Nicholas de Clemenges, archdeacon of Bay- 
eux. This author described a hideous condition of 
moral degeneration which pervaded all ranks of the 
church, and called loudly for reform. He denounced 
the pride and rapacity of the cardinals, their utter 
wickedness, their buying and selling ecclesiastical 
offices, and the abandoned lives of the bishops and 
other clergy, scarcely one in a thousand of whom was 
to be found possessing either virtue or sobriety. Of 
the nunneries he writes : " JVon dico Dei sanctuaria, sed 
veneris execranda prostibvla." This faithful monitor 
declared that the religious teachers of the people so 
scandalously neglected their duties, and led such disso- 
lute lives, that there was reason to fear lest the whole 
fabric of the Roman Church was in danger of being 
overturned. At several general councils measures for 
reforming the morals of the clergy and nuns were pro- 
posed, but nothing accomplished. They were like the 
wild protest of Savonarola, made towards the end of 
the fifteenth century, in Florence, in that they were fun- 
damentally defective because they lacked a doctrinal 
basis. Savonarola's efforts for reformation failed be- 
cause he simply denounced sin. He should have gone 
further, and labored for a reconstruction of the wor- 
ship and the beliefs of the church. Religion is some- 



104 THE VOICE OP GOD IX HISTOKY. 

thing more than morals; morals are the fruits, but the 
tree is a new life born of the Spirit of God and planted in 
the truth. It was impossible to reform fundamentally 
and generally the morals of the church when its mem- 
bers and officers were in utter ignorance of the truths 
of God and salvation, and when its religion was masses 
and pilgrimages and the worship of saints. The Refor- 
mation under the leaders of the sixteenth century was 
successful because it was an uprooting of heresy and a 
preaching of the glorious doctrines of grace. Man 
cannot lift himself to heaven unless he has the truths 
of redemption to pull up by, and God's Spirit in his 
soul to give him strength. Many shallow reformers 
think doctrine superfluous and an obstruction, but 
there never has been a true religious revolution with- 
out a doctrinal basis. 

In the dark ages the people and the clergy were in 
almost entire ignorance of the truth of God, and that 
is the reason the a^es were dark. The Reformation 
came by the study of the Scriptures and a consequent 
revival of doctrine. John "Wicklifxe was the man who 
first gave the Bible to the people, in modern times, in 
their own language, and thereby prepared the way for 
the Reformation. He was born at Spresswell, one 
mile from old Richmond, Yorkshire, in 1324. About 
the year 1334 he entered Oxford University. He 
became a fellow of Baliol College, and afterwards its 
master. After serving in several other charges he 
became rector of Lutterworth, though he always 
kept up his connection with the University of Oxford. 
There he habitually resided, taking a prominent paH 
in the affairs of that great educational centre. He had 



DAWN OF THE [REFORMATION. — WICKLIFFE. 105 

splendid talent, was a consummate scholar, and wielded 
an influence over all who came in contact with him. 

The first public appearance of Wickliffe in the affairs 
of the nation was in connection with a political con- 
troversy. Pope Urban Y. demanded of Edward III. 
of England the payment of a feudatory tribute. The 
king refused to pay it, and was sustained by the Par- 
liament. The great scholar of Oxford defended this 
action in some very powerful writings, completely si- 
lencing the papal See, and winning for himself the en- 
thusiastic friendship of his sovereign. "Wickliffe took a 
very high ground in this conflict. He held that the 
spiritual power is distinct from the civil, that it has 
nothing to do Avith temporal concerns, and when it in- 
trudes into the secular sphere it comes under the ju- 
risdiction of the civil authorities. He went so far as to 
teach that the church should hold no property; that 
excommunication was without effect unless justified 
by the actual sin of him against whom it was directed ; 
and that in no case should it be pronounced upon any 
one for a temporal offence. 

Of course, such doctrines as those proclaimed by 
~Wickliffe could not pass unrebuked. They were utterly 
destructive in their tendency to the theory of the 
Church of Rome. So he was summoned to appear be- 
fore the bishop of London and give answer to grave 
charges of heresy. He had studied the writings of 
Aurelius Augustine, who may well be termed the grand- 
father of the Reformation, though that great revival of 
truth and righteousness did not occur until a thousand 
years after his death. The essential doctrine of this 
great theologian was justification by faith, together 



106 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

with its twin truth, natural depravity, and the necessity 
of regeneration. Augustine's works are full of quo- 
tations from the Bible, and the inspired word, rather 
than tradition or ecclesiastical authority, is appealed 
to as the final source of religious knowledge. 

By the time Wickliffe arose, the Scriptures had 
been displaced by an infallible church, whose mouth- 
piece was the pope. The English [Reformer naturally 
asserted, in opposition to this, the supreme authority 
of God's word. The holy oracles he placed infin- 
itely above all tradition, decisions of councils, and de- 
clarations of the Holy See. He said : " Even though, 
there were a hundred popes, and all the monks were 
transformed into cardinals, in matters of faith their 
opinions would be of no account unless they were 
founded on Scripture." [Trial, IV., ch. 7.) 

Wickliffe was very earnest in his efforts to recall the 
people to the simplicity of faith. He translated the 
Bible from the Latin Vulgate into the English lan- 
guage, giving his fellow-countrymen the first complete 
version in their own tongue. This was a far more mo- 
mentous act than it may be considered by the careless 
reader. It meant the erection amongst men of the 
true standard of infallibility, the putting of Christ into 
the place of the pope. 

Wickliffe declaimed against the corruptions of the 
church, and in advocacy of the Scriptures, in Latin 
sermons at the University of Oxford, and at Lutter- 
worth and London, in the English language. He or- 
ganized a body of itinerant preachers to go throughout 
the realm, disseminating the truth and circulating the 
Bible. Beady hands made thousands of copies of the 



DAWN OF THE KEFOKMATION. — WICKLIFFE. 107 

holy book, which, were carried everywhere, and read, 
or heard, by tens of thousands. The first itinerants 
were university students and graduates, whom Wickliffe 
trained for the purpose. He sent out clerical and lay 
preachers. They were called " poor priests," because 
they had so little income, and lived mainly by the 
charitable hospitality of the people among whom they 
labored. Clad in the commonest clothing, they walked 
barefoot, staff in hand, throughout the country, preach- 
ing as they found opportunity. They opened the 
Scriptures and called upon men to repent. Their de- 
nunciations of sin were not alone aimed at the laity, 
but those of the clergy who led scandalous lives were 
not spared. The results were two-fold : there was a 
deep revival of true religious life, and a bitter hostility 
was aroused among the regular clergy. These itine- 
rants and their followers were called Lollards, a term of 
derision, and under that name they have passed into 
history. The word is supposed, to be connected etymo- 
logically with lullaby. The followers of Wickliffe were 
also called " canters"' the meaning of which shows a 
kinship to that of Lollards, according to this derivation* 
Wickliffe was summoned to appear before a convo- 
cation in St. Paul's, London, in 1377. For protection 
he was accompanied by the Duke of Lancaster, Lord 
Henry Percy, the Grand Marshal of England, and a 
band of armed men. A violent dispute broke out at 
the beginning of the affair, between the duke and Wil- 
liam Courtenay, the bishop of London, and the trial 
ended in a farce. After this fiasco, the Anglican epis- 
copate appealed to the pope, Gregory XL, to put Wick- 
liffe down. They charged him with nineteen heresies, 



108 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

and the pope issued, May 22, 1377, no less than five 
bulls against him, three of them being addressed to the 
primate and bishop of London, the fourth to the king, 
and the last to the chancellor and the University of 
Oxford. These bulls required Wickliffe to appear to 
answer charges before the papal commissioner, and or- 
dered that he be imprisoned until the day of trial 
arrived. They dared not imprison him, however, and 
at the appointed time he appeared alone before the 
tribunal. But he was not without powerful friends, for 
Sir Henry Clifford appeared from the mother of the 
king, and commanded that no judgment be pronounced 
against Wickliffe, and the citizens of London forced their 
way into the chapel to see that no harm came to their 
champion. The upshot of it all was, that Wickliffe was 
ordered not to preach any more the doctrines which he 
was accused of disseminating, and he departed as free 
as he came, binding himself by no promise. 

Not long after this event Gregory XI. died, and the 
papal schism broke out, when Clement YI. and Urban 
VI. contended as rival popes for the dominion of the 
church. As the two popes attacked one another, Wick- 
liffe's eyes were opened to the fundamental rottenness 
of the established ecclesiastical rule. He now began 
boldly to preach against the doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion. William Courtenay, bishop of London, again made 
an attempt to crush him. A council summoned by him 
condemned Wickliffe's doctrines as heresy, and the 
preaching of them was forbidden. No one was to be 
allowed to listen to them on pain of excommunication. 
But when Parliament was asked to order the imprison- 
ment of those who disobeyed, the Commons refused. 



DAWN OF THE KEFOEMATION. WICKLIFFE. 109 

The Bible was in the hands of the people, and it gave 
them some of the courage and liberty of the Gospel. 
He was, indeed, deprived of the right to teach in Ox- 
ford, but he continued to preach in his church at Lut- 
terworth. The people of the realm were with him, and 
ecclesiastical authority dared not stretch forth its hand 
to harm him. 

What struggles might have ensued between Wick- 
liffe and the hierarchy we cannot tell, for he lived in a 
constant expectation of martyrdom; but on December 
28, 1384, while officiating in his church, he fell stricken 
with paralysis, and three days afterwards peacefully 
breathed his last. 

Thus God removed his servant when his work was 
done, and saved him from further persecutions; but 
the good seeds he had sown were to bring forth a hun- 
dred fold in a later time. The Council of Constance, 
which burned John Huss, in 1415, anathematized Wick- 
liffe and ordered his books and his bones to be consumed. 
But Wickliffe was singing in heaven then. It was not 
until 1427 that any one was found to carry out this 
vain sentence. Bishop Fleming, of London, exhumed 
the remains, and committed them to the flames. The 
ashes were scraped up, and thrown into the Swift, a 
branch of the Avon, which runs by the hill on which 
Lutterworth is built. 

But the extinguishment of this noble star did not 
prevent the oncoming of the day. 



10 



CHAPTER X. 

John Huss. 

THE providential reason why the TTickliffe move- 
ment was not so successful as were similar at- 
tempts towards reformation in later times, was because 
America was not yet discovered ; and the reason why 
God raised up Wickliffe and his followers to do a 
certain work, was because America was going to be 
discovered in the next century. The new world was 
not ready for the grand work to be done in it for God 
and man. If the Reformation had come in the four- 
teenth century, or the fifteenth, there would have been 
no place of refuge whither the persecuted of the old 
world could fly for safety. He is blind who cannot see 
a connection between the discovery of America in 1492, 
and the Reformation which began soon afterwards. In 
1517, when Luther nailed his theses to the door of the 
Wittenberg Church, the great revolution may be said 
to have well begun. God had been holding the great 
continent of the west for a people and a principle, to 
occupy when they were ripe and ready for their des- 
tiny. The people were the Protestants ; the principle 
was liberty, civil and religious. Liberty is the op- 
portunity to do right. In Europe they had not the 
opportunity to do right. The people under the Ro- 
mish tyranny were compelled to do wrong; compelled 
to violate the Scriptures and their own consciences. 

110 



JOHN HUSS. Ill 

In America they were to have the opportunity to do 
right, and that was what they had contended for. Be 
it contradicted as strongly as words can express, that 
liberty is the opportunity to do what a man pleases. 
If the question be asked, what is right ? the answer is, 
God's will. How do we learn God's will? From the 
constitution of the universe, and especially from the 
Scriptures. 

God sent John Wickliffe to begin the elaboration of 
the principle of soul-liberty, and the preparation of a 
people to exercise it on both sides of the sea, but espe- 
cially in the West. His work was but the beginning. 
When he died the task was taken up by another hand, 
that of John Huss, of Bohemia. 

Huss was born at Hussinitz, not far from the Bava- 
rian frontier, in 1369. At an early age he entered the 
University of Prague, where he became successively 
loachelor of arts, bachelor of theology, and master of 
arts. In 1401 he was made dean of the philosophical 
faculty. He afterwards became rector of this uni- 
versity, which was then one of the very first seats of 
learning in Europe. Some zealous citizens of Prague 
erected and endowed what was called the Bethlehem 
Chapel in connection with the University, for the pur- 
pose of providing the stude?its and common people with 
sound preaching in the Bohemian tongue. Huss was 
given the pulpit of this church, and it soon became a 
centre of great spiritual as well as intellectual influ- 
ence. His work in this office brought him into close 
contact with the wants of men, and the study of John 
Wickliffe's works taught him where to go for that which 
alone could satisfy them. Huss searched the Scrip- 



112 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

tures night and day, finding light, life, and peace. No 
man can be fall of God's word without uttering it, 
and Huss poured forth from his pulpit in Bethlehem 
Chapel a flood of truth which found a ready welcome 
in the hearts of his hearers, especially the students of 
the univershvy. 

It was several years before he came into conscious 
opposition to the authorities of the Church of Rome. 
The archbishop under whom he was laboring so far 
approved of his course as to appoint him one of a 
commission, in 1405, to examine into certain alleged 
miracles at Wilsnack, near Wittenberg, which had 
caused that church to be made a resort for pilgrims 
from all parts of Europe. The result of the investiga- 
tion was an edict from the Arch-episcopal See forbid- 
ding all further pilgrimages to that shrine. Huss then 
published his first work, entitled "All the Blood of 
Christ is Glorified," in which he warmly declaimed 
against seeking the work and presence of God any- 
where except in his Holy "Word. He preached several 
times by appointment before provincial synods of the 
church, and in these sermons the clergy had an op- 
portunity to hear such truths as were not proclaimed 
often in those dark times. 

But Huss was turning on too much light for the 
comfort of the hierarchy, and, in 1408, he was pro- 
hibited from exercising the functions of his ministry 
in the diocese. However, he was not without influen- 
tial friends, and the following year he was made rector 
of the university. His work in this capacity was very 
successful, and he gained great popularity, not only 
with the students, but also at court. The archbishop 



JOHN HUSS. 113 

brought charges against Huss before the pope, ap- 
prising his holiness at the same time of the prevalence 
of the doctrines of "Wickliffe in Prague. A papal bull 
was issued, forbidding any one to teach this heresy, and 
requiring all preaching to cease, except where it had been 
the custom from ancient times. The archbishop then 
publicly burned the writings of Wickliffe. But there 
was great popular indignation against these proceed- 
ings, and verses ridiculing the archbishop were sung 
on the streets. Huss and his friends openly defended 
the writings of Wickliffe in the university, while the 
Reformer's congregations in Bethlehem Chapel grew 
to vast proportions. Higher and higher rose the enthu- 
siasm of those who were contending for the truth, and 
as Huss proclaimed it from his pulpit his voice was 
often drowned by the applause of the multitudes who 
hung upon his words. 

The archbishop could not allow this menacing move- 
ment to go on, so he proceeded to excommunicate Huss, 
and laid the city of Prague under interdict. No atten- 
tion was paid to either sentence, and the archbishop 
was attempting to arrange a compromise when a period 
was put to his labors by death. A crusade which the 
pope proclaimed against Naples just at that time, and 
the authorized sale of indulgences, called forth the most 
violent opposition of Huss and his followers. They 
denounced them all, declaring that indulgences are a 
sin, that the claim of papal infallibility is blasphemy, 
and that neither pope nor bishop has a right to draw 
the sword. The populace adopted these views, and, 
marching in contemptuous procession before the arch- 
episcopal palace, burned the pope's bulls in the market 



114 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

place. Warmer waxed the conflict, and a tragic chap- 
ter was added. The king executed three young men 
who declared the indulgences to be a humbug. But 
Huss, attended by a number of students, took up their 
bodies and buried them in Bethlehem Chapel. Cardi- 
nal Peter, of St. Angelo, now interdicted the place of 
residence of Huss, and threatened him with the civil 
ban. At the request of the king he left the city, after 
having published a work in which he appeals from the 
Eoman Curia to Christ the righteous Judge. In his 
exile he wrote his principal book, The Church, and 
preached to large audiences at Kozihradeck and Kra- 
kowetz. 

The religious ferment in Bohemia had now become 
a matter of continental notoriety, and King Sigisinund 
of Hungary decided that the case ought to be brought 
before a general council about to be held at Constance. 
Huss gladly consented to appear, believing that he 
would thereby have an opportunity to defend himself 
and profess Christ before the assembled representa- 
tives of Christendom. He set out, after preparing all 
his private concerns to be left in order, should he never 
return. He well knew that he was going into the 
greatest danger. All along the route Huss was greeted 
with the sympathetic applause of the people as he 
passed; but a quite different reception awaited him 
among the ecclesiastics at Constance. Soon after his 
arrival he was thrown into prison. A commission of 
prelates reported upon his case, without giving him a 
hearing, and the writings and the person of Wickliffe 
were condemned to perdition. 

Huss was confronted with a statement of his own 



JOHN HUSS. 115 

views and those of "Wickliffe. He acknowledged his 
doctrines, but denied some tilings which false witnesses 
preferred against him. Vain efforts were made to in- 
duce him to recant. Nothing was left but death at the 
stake, and none knew it better than "the pale, thin 
man in mean attire," as a writer of that day described 
him. On Saturday, July 6, 1415, the sentence was 
pronounced against him in the cathedral. His robes 
of office were stripped from him, and he was dragged 
to the place of execution for instant death. " Thy soul 
we deliver up to the devil;" "and I commend it to the 
holy Lord Jesus," responded Huss. A paper cap a 
yard high was placed upon his head, bearing the wait- 
ing, "Heresiarch." "God is my witness," cried the 
martyr, "that I have never taught or preached that 
which false witnesses have testified against me. He 
knows that the great object of all my preaching and 
writing was to convert men from sin. .In the truth of 
that gospel which hitherto I have written, taught and 
preached, I now joyfully die." The fire, was kindled, 
and his voice, while he prayed in the words of the 
"Kyrie Eleison," was soon hushed by the flaming 
tongues that licked up his life. 

The scene over, the principal actors returned, to the 
council and to their deliberations concerning the af- 
fairs of that kingdom which "is not of this world," 
while the sacred ashes of God's martyr were gathered 
up and thrown into the Bhine. 

The man who presided over the council which 
burned John Huss was Bishop Jean Brognier. When 
he died his remains were buried in St. Peter's Cathedral, 
at Geneva, and there they rest still, under the pave- 



116 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

ment before tlie grand portal. This church became 
afterwards, when John Calvin was its pastor, the citadel 
of the Reformed faith. Hah ! Jean Brognier, whose are 
the feet that tramp over your head, and have tramped 
there for four hundred years ? They are those of Pro- 
testants, disciples of Huss and "Wickliffe. "Who are 
these eager ones that hardly stop and glance at your 
epitaph as they hurry on to hear the gospel preached 
that you tried to destroy? They are the children of 
liberty and the children of God — that God whose ser- 
vice is perfect freedom. Poor fool, you thought to stay 
the dawn by putting a cloud of smoke over a star, but 
it was all in vain; you could not stop the advance of 
day. The voice of God had called it, and it must 
come. The words were spoken again: "Let there be 
light." It remains now to record, "And there was 
light." 



CHAPTER XI. 

Maetin Luthek, the Monumental Man. 

THERE never lived a man who more completely 
realized in himself the genius of his country than 
did Martin Luther. To state that he was a typical Ger- 
man does not express what he was to the Fatherland. It 
might almost be said that Luther was Germany. He 
embodies the boldness, the courage, the strength, the 
thoroughness, the ideality, the musical taste, the man- 
liness, which, being combined in one character, have, 
for - centuries, constituted the national ideal of that 
sturdy race, which no other nation has ever completely 
conquered. 

Carlyle says of him : " I will call Luther a true, great 
man — great in intellect, in courage, affection, and in- 
tegrity ; one of our most lovable and precious men. . . 
A right spiritual hero and prophet ; and more, a true 
son of nature and fact, for whom these centuries, and 
many that are to come yet, will be thankful to heaven." 
The spirit of Luther's life may be caught from his 
greatest hymn, best translated by Carlyle, " Em feste 
burg ist wiser Gott" — "A safe stronghold our God is 
still." The rugged, though majestic, strength of this 
hymn, its calm trust in God, and defiance of evil, well 
bespeak the man who led the German people in the 
great contention against the superstition and power of 
Rome. 

117 



118 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

The hero of the German Reformation was born at 
Eislebep, a town of Saxony, not far from Wittenberg, 
November 10, 1483. His birth-place was his death- 
place also, for he finished his course in the same dear 
Eisleben ? February 18, 1546. His father was first a 
peasant. His mother was described by Melanchthon 
as remarkable for her "modesty, fear of God., and 
habits of prayer." They brought up Martin, their first- 
born to lead an earnest, religious life, and the impres- 
sions of their training followed him to the end of his 
daj T s. It is a fact well worth mentioning, that all of 
the great leaders of the Reformation, and Aurelius Au- 
gustine, who lived long before that wonderful epoch, 
were brought up under pious influences. Of by far 
the larger number of the good great men of the world 
has this been true. The promises of God for blessings 
upon parental training stand sure from age to age, and 
it is more and more manifest, as we read history, that 
it is worth something to have been reared amid the 
sanctities of a Christian home. 

Luther's parents set him apart for a lawyer, but God 
had other plans for him. He studied at Mansfield, 
Magdeburg, and Eisenach. He entered the University 
of Erfurt in 1501, and took his bachelor's degree in 
1502, and the master's a year later. Hitherto he had 
not studied the Scriptures. The Book of Life was 
hidden from the weary eyes of men at that time by 
the forms and ceremonies of the apostate church. But 
a great want was arising among the people, and it 
found its expression in the prophetic soul of the young 
student. Luther became oppressed by a supreme 
anxiety, while strange, inarticulate fears harassed his 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 119 

mind. The death of a dear friend deepened his mel- 
ancholy. A dreadful struggle was raging within his 
breast, and when one day a violent storm convulsed 
the natural elements, he formed the resolution, sud- 
denly, to become a monk. On the 17th of July, 1505, 
lie entered the Augustinian Convent at Erfurt, and in 
1507 was ordained a priest. 

Luther now devoted himself with the intensest ear- 
nestness to the performance of the duties of his order, 
and to the study of theology ; but these did not quell 
the conflict within his soul, and failed to give the rest 
he sought. Rest, however, was not far away ; the 
oasis was just before him. He had wearied of the 
ceremonies of the church, and was now despairing of 
help from human philosophy. He began to search 
the Scriptures. Here, at last, he found the comple- 
ment of human life, and was satisfied. 

In 1508 the young monk was made professor of 
philosophy in the University of "Wittenberg. He was 
sent to Rome by the Augustinian order, on business 
which kept him in the Eternal City for a short time. 
After his return, he voluntarily undertook preaching in 
Wittenberg as an assistant. The simplicity of the 
gospel charmed him away from philosophy, and he 
proclaimed the pure doctrines of Christ. He lectured 
mainly on the Book of Psalms and the Epistle to the 
Romans. The strongest human influence brought to 
bear upon him now was the writings of Augustine. 
The ready disciple of the ancient father of theology 
seized upon the great doctrines of salvation by faith, 
substitution, and imputation. " Thou art my right- 
eousness, but I am thy sin," were the strong terms of 



120 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

his religion, and they were essentially Pauline and 
Augustinian. 

At this period, the rising young preacher did not 
know that there was anything in his beliefs and ten- 
dencies of thought antagonistic to Rome. He was not 
conscious that he was drifting out and away from the 
ancient moorings of the church in which he was born, 
and which he loved so well. He proclaimed mightily 
the gospel, and urged others to do the same, calling 
upon the bishops to preach as the most important 
function of their office, and insisting that preaching 
should have a wider range than exhortations to ob- 
serve the ceremonial ritual. Sermons, he held, should 
be free from human dogmatism, and abound with the 
truth of the eternal word. It is easy for us to see 
now that it was impossible for him to go on in that 
line, without antagonizing the ecclesiastical authorities. 

When Tetzel, a man commissioned by the pope, 
through the archbishop of Mainz, to sell indulgences 
for money to build St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, 
came to Jiiterbock, near Wittenberg, upon his unholy 
mission, Luther suddenly found himself attacking the 
world-wide church, though he fondly fancied he was 
fighting in its defence. He did not then know how 
hopelessly the Catholic body had been saturated with 
Pelagianism, and the extent of the deterioration of re- 
ligion, which showed itself in this base business, de- 
vised and authorized by the august sovereign who wore 
the tiara in Rome. Selling forgiveness, and the right 
to commit sin, for money, was something so utterly op- 
posed to the Scripture-principle of salvation through 
faith in the blood of Christ, that Luther declaimed 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 121 

against it no mild phrases, denouncing the practice as 
unscriptural and sinful. 

The gauge of battle was laid when, October 13, 1517, 
Luther nailed to the door of the Castle Church of Wit- 
tenberg his famous ninety-five theses against indul- 
gences and penance, at the same time stating the true 
doctrine of salvation by faith. This bold act, challeng- 
ing the whole hierarchy, from the pope down to the 
humblest monk, sent a £hrill throughout Germany, and 
marked the formal commencement of the mightiest 
moral struggle the world has ever known. "With mar- 
vellous rapidity the theses were copied, to be scattered 
far and near. The regeneration of Europe was in pro- 
gress, and thousands of enquirers were waiting for 
such help as this, for such inspiration, to question all 
things pertaining to religion, demanding a proof from 
above for all that men are to be required to believe. 
These theses declared that the pope cannot really par- 
don sin, but only proclaim God's terms ; men must re- 
pent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Luther had struck the divine chord, and there was a 
response in the heart of Germany. Thousands of men 
spoke for him throughout the land, and> in a week, he 
was born the hero of his nation, a position he has 
never lost. 

It was well for Luther that he had been to Rome, 
and had seen the -.pope and his court. It is hard to 
understand how any one could witness the corruptions 
which, gathered about the Holy See at that time with- 
out being disillusionized, however deep may have been 
his veneration for the throne of the divine vicegerent. 
Luther had climbed the holy stairs on his knees, strug- 

n 



122 THE VOICE OF GOD 1ST HISTORY. 

gling between such meritorious works and the Scrip- 
ture statement, " The just shall live by faith." He had 
seen the buying and selling of ecclesiastical prefer- 
ments, the base lives of the clergy, and the supineness 
of the pontiff himself, more intent upon political ag- 
grandizement than the holiness of the church and the 
salvation of souls. "If there be a hell," said Luther, 
" Rome is built over it." 

The hierarchy were not slow, to respond to Luther's 
challenge. He was branded as a heretic, and cited to 
Rome. But Luther did not wish to die just yet, and 
decided that it was more healthful for him to remain 
among his own Germans. Cardinal Cajetan, papal 
legate, was authorized to deal with him and bring him 
to submission. A conference was held at Augsburg 
(October, 1518), but Luther did not succumb. He 
stoutly maintained the positions taken in his theses, 
and declared that the pope did not possess supreme 
authority. He showed that there had been times in 
the history of the church when there was no pope. 
He demanded to be heard before a general council of 
the whole church. But the papal authorities did not 
consider it wise to allow this brave, scholarly and elo- 
quent heretic to proclaim his doctrines in the presence 
of so large and representative a body. 

Luther had a valuable friend in the Elector of Sax- 
ony, without whose consent he could not be delivered 
up for transportation to Rome. As the elector was 
unwilling to surrender him, the pope sent Miltitz, his 
chamberlain, who did induce Luther to maintain sil- 
ence for a time. But when Dr. Eck challenged Luth- 
er's friend Karlstadt to a disputation to be held in 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 123 

Leipsic, lie felt himself absolved from any obligation 
to further silence, and he joined the theological tournay. 
He broke still more out of the shell of religious super- 
stition, and declared that the pope has no divine right 
as primate, that the power of the keys is entrusted 
to the church, that the church is the whole body of 
believers, including the Greek Church. He affirmed 
that some parts of Wickliffe's and Huss' writings, con- 
demned by the Council of Constance, were genuinely 
evangelical. Thus he denied the infallibility of both 
pope and council, leaving nothing but God's word as 
the supreme test of truth. Dr. Eck maintained the 
supremacy of the Holy See, saying, "No pope, no 
church," and declined to hold further disputation with 
one who challenged the authority of both council and 
pope. Nothing was left now for this bold monk but a, 
papal bull of excommunication. 

The Leipsic controversy led Luther to feel that he 
had broken irretrievably with Rome, and caused ail 
Germany to see it too. The people felt that this was 
more than a monkish quarrel, and the downtrodden 
peasantry hailed him as their deliverer. Luther w T as 
still carrying on his work as professor at Wittenberg, 
and the number of students increased from two hun- 
dred and thirty-two in 1517 to five hundred and 
seventy-nine in 1520. He published some powerful 
sermons, and an "Address to the Christian Nobility of the 
German Nation on the Reformation of Christendom ,"'as 
well as a work called " The Babylonian Captivity of the 
Church" The address to the nobles caused great ex- 
citement throughout the nation and beyond it. In this 
Luther declared that all Christians are equal, that the 



124 THE VOICE OF GOD IX HISTORY. 

secular power is of God as well as the church, and has 
jurisdiction over pope, bishops, monks and nuns. 
" Why should 300,000 florins be sent every year from 
Germany to Rome?" "Germany for the Germans" 
became the cry, and a general demand arose for the 
freedom of civil government from ecclesiastical control, 
for a married clergy, and for national education. In 
" The Babylonish Captivity" he charged that the pope 
had carried the church away captive to Rome, and 
closed by saying : "I hear that bulls and other politi- 
cal things have been prepared, in which I am urged to 
recant or be proclaimed a heretic. If that be true, I 
wish this little book to be part of my future recanta- 
tion." 

The bull was published, excommunicating Luther, 
July 15, 1520. It was posted up in various towns in 
Germany, but the people tore it to shreds and trampled 
it under- their feet. On the 10th of December, at the 
head of a procession of professors and students, Luther 
walked out of the gates of the university, carrying the 
bull of the pope. In the market place, where, if the 
people had allowed it, Luther might have been burnt, 
they made a great bonfire and committed the supreme 
edict of the papacy to the flames. Throughout Ger- 
many this act of defiance was heralded with delight, 
and stern satisfaction was felt in the hearts of the peo- 
ple. It was felt now that Rome had done its worst, 
and that, if Luther was sacrificed, it would have to be 
done by the emperor. 

Charles Y. was therefore called upon by the pope to 
crush these pestiferous heresies. The emperor sum- 
moned a diet at Worms in 1521, and cited Luther to 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 125 

appear. How much fear he experienced in complying 
may be inferred from a look of wood-cuts he devised 
with his friend, Lucas Cranach, the artist, just before 
setting out. A picture of Christ washing the disciples' 
feet on one page confronted one of the pope on the 
opposite, holding out his toe to be kissed ; Christ bear- 
ing his cross, and the pope carried in state through 
Rome on men's shoulders; the Saviour driving the 
money-changers out of the temple, and the pope selling 
indulgences, with heaps of money before him. 

But Luther went to Worms not without the gravest 
forebodings. Crowds came out to greet their hero as he 
progressed towards the imperial city. He was per- 
mitted to preach at Erfurt, though the herald who had 
charge of him was forbidden to allow such a thing. 
The people demanded it. His march was like a tri- 
umphal procession, and he arrived at Worms amid a 
vast concourse. His friends knew the danger of this 
trial, and besought him to stay away, but the Reformer 
insisted that "if all the tiles on the houses of Worms 
were devils, he would go." 

Being arraigned before the mightiest civil tribunal on 
earth, behind which was the greatest ecclesiastical 
power, already pledged to his destruction, the poor 
monk did not quail. He acknowledged his books, and 
reiterated his doctrines. The emperor demanded that 
he recant. The reply was so typical of Luther, and so 
heroic, it has become a classic of religion : " Well, then, 
if your imperial majesty and your graces require a plain 
answer, I will give you one of that kind without horns 
or teeth. It is this : I must be convinced, either by the 
witness of Scripture or clear arguments, for I do not 



126 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

trust either pope or councils by themselves, since it is 
manifest that they have often erred and contradicted 
themselves; for I am bound by the Holy Scriptures 
which I have quoted, and my conscience is held by the 
word of God. I cannot, and will not, retract anything, 
for to act against conscience is unsafe and unholy. So 
help me God. Amen." The emperor made a sign that 
this ended the matter, and Luther added, "I can do 
naught else. Here I stand. God help me. Amen." 
" Hier stehe ich, ich hann nicht cinders; Gott li'dfmir. 
Amen!'" And there he did stand, a man against the 
world ; but Jesus his Lord stood with him. 

The trial made a tremendous impression. How 
could it fail to ? The Italians and Spaniards wished 
him burnt at once, but the Germans determined to 
save Luther at all hazards. The emperor took time to 
deliberate, and the result was that he placed Luther 
under the ban of the empire, aud as soon as his safe 
conduct should expire, it was to be unlawful to give 
him food or shelter, and any one could kill him with- 
out fear of punishment. 

Frederick, the elector of Saxony, seeing that Luther 
must now perish under the hand of an assassin, had 
him waylaid on his return, and captured by a party of 
knights, to be confined in the AVartburg castle, solely 
for his protection from danger. Luther, of course, un- 
derstood it, and assumed the dress of a knight living 
at Wartburg, but the public were kept in ignorance, 
and the universal question was, "Where is Luther ? God 
knew where he was, and it was just where he wished 
him to be. He was in the Wartburg castle, translating 
the Scriptures into the German language. This was 



MAKTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 127 

his greatest literary work, and lie did it well. His en- 
deavor was to reproduce, as far as possible, the spirit 
and tone of the original. He said, ""We are laboring 
hard to bring out the prophets in the mother tongue. 
But what a great and difficult work it is to make the 
HebreAV writers speak German ! They resist it so, and 
are unwilling to give up their Hebrew existence and 
become like Germans." Luther did make them talk 
German, and the Greek writers of the New Testament 
also. They talked German, and the German people 
responded from thousands of homes under the power 
of the gospel. 

Luther abode in the Wartburg, his " Patmos" he 
called it, for ten months, and they were among the 
best-spent of his life. How many of God's greatest 
servants have been laid aside for a time in some sort 
of forced retirement for ripening and reflection! Mo- 
ses, in Midian; David-, a refugee from Saul; Paul, in 
Arabia three years ; John, in Patmos ; Luther, in the 
Wartburg; Calvin, in Strasburg and Basle, and John 
Knox, in Geneva. When these men returned from 
their exile, they were better prepared for their great 
work. Luther could stand his confinement no longer, 
and made plans for his return to Wittenberg. He was 
warned of the danger of such a proceeding, and espe- 
cially that Duke George, of Saxony, an enemy of the 
Reformation, would doubtless execute upon him the 
ban of the emperor. "I would go," he said, "if it 
rained Duke Georges for nine days running, and every 
one of them nine times as fierce as he." He suddenly 
appeared at Wittenberg March 3, 1522, and at once 
plunged into the struggles of the day. 



128 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTOEY. 

The Eeformer had now to contend with a horde of 
fanatical people called Anabaptists, who, misunder- 
standing and perverting the use of the gospel, declared 
for polygamy, the abolition of civil government, and a 
comnmnistic division of property among the people. 
This caricature of Protestantism was calculated to do 
great damage to the Reformation, though this great 
movement was not responsible for it. The hierarchy, 
however, found in it a convenient argument against the 
advocates of liberty and truth. The distinction be- 
tween liberty and license is as great as between liberty 
and tyranny, but it is not so easily seen by the illiter- 
ate. Luther fulminated some thundering denuncia- 
tions against these revolutionists in what have been 
called " The Severe Tracts." 

In the midst of these exciting conflicts it seems that 
the great warrior's mind had been running on a ten- 
derer subject, for, on June 11, 1525, Luther the monk 
married Catherine von Bora the nun ! Here was ex- 
emplary reformation in earnest. Luther agreed with 
Paul, who said, " Have we not power to lead about a 
sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the 
brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?" (1 Cor. ix. 5.) 
It was a bold step, but a wise one, and in the way of 
God's appointment. Catherine was only twenty-four 
years of age when Luther married her. They had six 
children, and their life together was a most happy one. 

He needed the sustainment of a faithful help-mate 
in his arduous labors, for he had the " care of all the 
churches." It was an herculean task to organize the Re- 
formation, and to elaborate from the Scriptures a theol- 
ogy and a government for the church. Nor was it easy 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 129 

to work it into the life of the nascent body. "While occu- 
pied with this great undertaking, Luther engaged in a 
controversy with the Swiss Reformers on the nature of 
the Lord's Supper. He appealed to the simple words 
of the Saviour, "This is my body," as proof that, 
whereas the bread and wine are not changed into the 
flesh and blood cf Christ, as the Roman Catholic 
Church teaches, yet the sacred body of Jesus is veri- 
tably present in the sacrament. Zwingli, (Ecolampa- 
dius, and the Swiss Protestants generally, held that the 
body of Christ was not present, but that the bread and 
wine represented them. The Swiss were firm, and 
Luther was immovable ; so no compromise was effected, 
and a division was thus made of the continental Pro- 
testants, which has continued to the present day, caus- 
ing much rivalry and antagonism. Those who held the 
German view were called " Lutherans ";• the opposite 
party the "Reformed," and under these names they 
have continued ever since. 

But the Reformation movement in Germany had 
waxed apace. In 1522 an imperial diet had met at 
Nuremberg, and reversed the edict of Worms, demand- 
ing of the papacy that it keep its promises to Germany, 
that it reform its clergy and the church in general. At 
another diet held in Spires, the papal legate still in- 
sisted that the edict of Worms be carried out ; but the 
demand was refused. This greatly strengthened the 
good cause, and many German states which had hith- 
erto kept aloof from the Reformation now joined it. 
The controversy was no longer between a monk and 
the papacy, but between Germany and Rome. Kay, 
more Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, and the 



130 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

Netherlands, were taking up the banner of the great 
reform, and the strongest nations of Northern Europe 
presented a united front against the tyranny of the 
apostate church. 

During the stormy days of conflict, Luther had, 
among other friends, two whose names are prominent 
in history, Erasmus and Melanchthon. The former 
became alienated from him, but the latter was his faith- 
ful co-laborer to the last. Erasmus, who was a man of 
consummate scholarship, was greatly deficient in cour- 
age ; and after writing against the abuses and sins of 
fche church, he died finally without sundering his con- 
nection with Borne. The differences which already 
existed between him and Luther were made public in a 
discussion of the question of the human will. Eras- 
mus declared that it was free, and condemned Luther 
for his harshness in the controversy w T ith Rome. Luther 
held that gentleness was not necessary when dealing 
with Satan ; and on the doctrinal question taught cm- 
equivocally that the human will is impotent to choose 
the good, and that none would be saved if God had 
not from all eternity elected some to everlasting life. 
Luther boldly proclaimed these doctrines, so unpopu- 
lar to the human judgment, holding that it was always 
safe to preach God's truth, and that its great Author 
would defend it. 

Quite a different character from Erasmus was Me- 
lanchthon. He did not come up to Luther's standard 
in boldness, but was nevertheless a truly noble and 
lovable character, and as a theologian had no equal in 
Germany. He wrote the first Protestant work on sys- 
tematic theology. The Augsburg Confession was from 



MARTIN LUTHER, THE MONUMENTAL MAN. 131 

the pen of Meianclithon. Luther said, "I was bound 
to fight with rabble and devils, for which reason my 
books are very belligerent. I am the rough pioneer 
who must break road ; but Master Philip [Meianclithon] 
comes along softly and gently, sows and waters heartily, 
since God has richly endowed him with gifts." The 
feelings of Meianclithon towards his great co-laborer 
may be learned from such utterances of his as "he is a 
man full of the Holy Ghost," and "I would rather die 
than be torn from Luther." 

The great work of the Reformer of Germany was ap- 
proaching completion. His toils had been prodigious, 
and God had markedly protected him from his enemies. 
He was at last to die in peace where he was born. His 
life was to close like a complete circle, ending at the 
point where it began. He had been called to Eisleben 
to compose a quarrel between two counts. He suc- 
ceeded in making peace, fitting work for the evening of 
his mighty day. A pain and pressure in his chest fore- 
shadowed the end. Anxious friends ministered to him ; 
and when they had done all that human friendship 
could suggest, begged to know whether or not he 
wished anything more. "Nihil aliud seel caelum" — no- 
thing else but heaven — was his reply. "Father, into 
thy hands I commit my spirit," he whispered, and 
gently breathed his life out, February 18, 1546, at four 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

Melanchthon said, "Dead is the horseman of the 
chariot of Israel who ruled the church in this last age 
of the world." They buried him in the Schlosskirche 
of Wittenberg, the old church upon the door of which 
he had long before nailed the ninety-five theses, or 
the first great trumpet-blast of the Reformation. 



CHAPTER XII. 

John Calvin, the Theologian op the Refokmation. 

WHILE Luther was contending with tyranny and 
superstition in Germany, Calvin was doing a no 
less important work in the little republic of Geneva. 
Luther was breaking down a system ; Calvin was build- 
ing up one. The German Reformer was a destructive 
genius; Calvin was constructive. Luther was God's 
sledge-hammer to crush indulgence-selling, the wor- 
ship of images and saints, the oppression of the people 
by the priesthood, the doctrines of purgatory, the mass, 
and the infallibility of the pope; but he never con- 
structed in place of these a very complete and logical 
system of theology or church government. Luther 
filled the largest place, in the world's eye, of any man 
of his day ; but Calvin's influence has been more pow- 
erful, and has travelled further than that of any man 
of modern times. The reason is, that Calvin constructed 
a theology and a government which have challenged 
the admiration and imitation of the world from his own 
times down to the present. He was the master-spirit 
of the Reformation in Switzerland, France, the Nether- 
lands, England, and Scotland. Moreover, nearly all 
the great political and religious movements in these 
countries, and among all English-speaking peoples, 
since he lived, have been influenced or caused by what 
he wrote or did in the city of Geneva, by azure Leman. 

132 



JOHN CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 133 

The theology of Calvin is the most powerful and 
philosophical system of doctrine ever promulgated. It 
is the only logical creed. Pelagianism is not logical ; 
if it -were, it would deny the atonement of Christ alto- 
gether. Arminianism is not logical, or it would ex- 
clude God from the affairs of men. Mercifully God 
has restrained the adherents of these creeds from going 
whither their principles would lead them. But Cal- 
vin's doctrines hold together like the links of an iron 
chain. Grant the doctrine of God's eternal, universal, 
and particular decree, and it is impossible to deny any 
fundamental point in Calvinism. Timid people shrink 
from its terrors ; but Calvinism is to-day, at least, the 
professed creed of four-fifths of Protestant Christen- 
dom. Thirteen millions of Baptists believe and teach 
it; twenty-one millions of Episcopalians keep it in 
their "Thirty-nine Articles of Keligion," whether they 
believe and preach it or not ; and thirty-five millions of 
Presbyterians, distributed among all nations, consider 
it their own peculiar heritage. 

John Calvin, the greatest of all Frenchmen, was 
born at Noyon, sixty-eight miles northeast of Paris, 
July 10, 1509. His native town, a community of about 
six thousand inhabitants, was distinguished for its 
splendid cathedral. "With this important see our [Re- 
former's father, Gerard Calvin, was connected as apos- 
tolic notary, fiscal attorney of the county, and secre- 
tary to the bishop. The mother, Jeanne Lefrano Cal- 
vin, was described as very beautiful, and was devoted 
to the observances of religion. They were poor, but 
highly respected ; and their influence gained for their 
son the best educational advantages, which he was 
32 



134 THE YOICE OF GOD IX HISTORY. 

ready to appreciate and improve. At the age of 
twelve lie received the chaplaincy of the Chapel de la 
Gesine, and assumed the tonsure, though he was never 
ordained. When fourteen years old he was sent to 
Paris to prepare for the priesthood. His support was 
derived from church preferments. He took high rank 
at once as a student of extraordinary ability, but was 
considered very severe in his morals and manners. 
The "Accusative Case" was his sobriquet among his 
companions. In 1527 he assumed the curacy of Marte- 
ville, and two } T ears later of Pont l'Eveque. 

On the advice of his father, Calvin turned his atten- 
tion to the study of law, attending lectures in the uni- 
versities of Orleans and Bourges. His course in this 
direction was brilliant. He soon received the degree 
of doctor of law, and was frequently called upon to lec- 
ture before the students in the absence of a professor. 
The subsequent history of this great man, who was 
called, not only to be a theologian, but also a states- 
man, and was as much a reformer of government as of 
doctrine, shows that the time spent in acquiring the 
noble profession of law was by no means wasted. A 
great Hand was leading him, by a way he knew not, to 
a work than which a greater one has perhaps never 
been done by an uninspired man for the human race. 
After four }*ears of the law, Calvin returned to Paris 
and to the study of theology. In 1532 he published 
Seneca's De Chinent'ia, with a commentary, and had to 
sell his patrimony to meet the expense. Towards the 
close of this year he was, by a "sudden conversion," 
made willing "to know the truth." From this time the 
Bible was his text-book, and faithfully did he study it. 



JOHN CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 135 

The Reformation had made considerable headway 
in France, and the Evangelicals held meetings, which 
Calvin attended. He often preached in these assem- 
blies, usually closing his sermons with the words : "If 
God be for us, who can be against us? " Things went 
on well for a time ; but, when his friend, Nicolas Cop, 
a learned physician of Basle, was elected rector of the 
University of Paris, Calvin prepared for him an inaug- 
ural address on Christian Philosophy. This was a 
plea for the reformation of the church on the gospel 
plan. It was delivered before a great audience, and 
made a profound impression, calling down upon him 
the severest censure of the ecclesiastical dignitaries. 
The consequence was that Calvin had to fly to the 
south of France. 

During two years he wandered about the country a 
fugitive, everywhere preaching the truth. A part of 
the time he spent in the house of a learned friend, the 
young Canon Louis du Tillet, who himself afterwards 
became a Protestant, working on his Institutes. For 
a while he was the guest of Margaret of Navarre, 
sister of Francis I. Again we find him at Poitiers, 
near which, in a cave, he celebrated for the first time 
the Lord's Supper after the Protestant form. He pub- 
lished at Orleans, in 1534, his first theological work, 
Psychojiannichia, which was a refutation of the Ana- 
baptist doctrine of the soul's sleep between death and 
the resurrection. 

The outbreak of persecution compelled him to leave 
France and take up his residence in Strasburg. He 
removed to Basle, and there, in 1536, he published in 
Latin his immortal theological treatise, The Institutes 



136 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

of the Christian Religion. Calvin was only twenty- 
seven years of age when lie put forth this magnificent 
work, which gives some idea of his industry, and of 
his marvellous intellectual endowments. It was dedi- 
cated to Francis I., king of France. This dedication 
is a model of respectful, learned and eloquent pleading 
for the truth. It opens with these words: "To His 
Most Christian Majesty, Francis, King of the French, 
and his Sovereign, John Calvin wisheth peace and sal- 
vation in Christ." At the close of his great argument 
for the Beformation, he writes : "If your ears are so 
preoccupied with the whispers of the malevolent as to 
leave no opportunity for the accused to speak for 
themselves, and if those outrageous furies, with your 
connivance, continue to persecute with imprisonments, 
scourges, tortures, confiscations, and flames, we shall, 
indeed, like sheep destined to the slaughter, be reduced 
to the greatest extremities. Yet shall we in patience 
possess our souls, and wait for the mighty hand of the 
Lord, which, undoubtedly, will in time appear and 
show itself, armed for the deliverance of the poor from 
their affliction, and for the punishment of their de- 
spisers who now exult in such perfect security. May 
the Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne with 
righteousness, and your kingdom with equity. Basle, 
August 1, 1536." The first sentence of the body of 
the work reads : " True and substantial wisdom princi- 
pally consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and 
the knowledge of ourselves." This profound general- 
ization, laid down at the outset, gives an idea of the 
philosophical character of the work. The Institutes 
were afterwards translated by the author into the 
French language. 



JOHN CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 137 

Having occasion to make a journey to his native 
town, lie converted, while there, a brother to the Re- 
formed faith, and was returning to Basle by a circu- 
itous route, on account of a war that was raging along 
the more direct course, when he stopped over night in 
Geneva, August 5, 1536, intending to leave the next 
day. But he had met his destiny ; God had led him 
hither ; and here was to be his home for the remainder 
of his life — twenty-eight year's. 

A better place could hardly have been imagined for 
developing the principles of human liberty and divine 
truth. Here was a little republic in the middle of the 
world, at the very gates of nearly every important na- 
tion of the European continent. A thoughtful and 
earnest people were ready to be made an instrument 
in God's hands for good. God had been preparing the 
work for Calvin, and Calvin for the work. He now 
brings the tw o together, and from that day it is easy to 
see more than a human intelligence in the history of 
Geneva. 

Calvin purposed to go on and live quietly among his 
books, in Basle or Strasburg. He had only one night 
for Geneva. But William Farel, who had been leading 
the Reform in that city, laid hands upon the visitor 
and claimed him for the work there. He demanded 
that the author of the Institutes should come out of his 
study, and face the world with him. Calvin resisted ; 
Farel insisted. Calvin pleaded ; Farel threatened, and 
cried out that the curses of God would fall upon him if 
he preferred his studies to the work of the Lord. Cal- 
vin was overwhelmed ; it was evidently a divine call ; 
God's voice was in Farel's mouth; he surrendered. 



138 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

"These words," said lie, "terrified and shook me, as if 
God from on high had stretched out his hand to stop me ; 
so that I renounced the journey I had undertaken." 

Without loss of time Calvin and Farel proceeded 
with the great work of reconstructing Geneva. They 
set the standard very high, and demanded, that all the 
people conform to it. A year and a lialf they labored^ 
meeting with great opposition, and yet making sub- 
stantial progress. But the Genevese could endure it 
no longer, and on April 23, 1538, the two Reformers 
were formally deposed by the Council of the Two Hun- 
dred, and expelled from the city. 

This was a great trial to both, for Calvin, as well as 
Farel, had become greatly attached to Geneva, and 
wholly absorbed in the work of making it a model 
comnrunity after the pattern of the Scriptures. Calvin 
now betook himself to Strasburg, where he lived three 
years, devoting himself to study, and to the pastoral 
care of the French Protestants of that city. "While 
there he made the acquaintance of Melanchthon ; and 
the "theologian," as the Germans called Calvin, and 
the "preceptor of Germany," became warm friends. 

Was the time spent in Strasburg lost to Calvin ? No, 
for it furnished him an opportunity to ripen, and there 
he found a good wife ; this last was compensation enough. 
He joined his fortunes to Idelette de Bures in 1510. 
They lived happily together nine years, and had three 
children, all of whom died in infancy. Calvin loved 
Idelette while she lived, and cherished fondly her 
memory after she was taken from him. Those nine 
years were always considered by him as an oasis in 
his life 



JOHN CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 139 

The "banished shepherd never ceased to pray for his 
wayward flock in Geneva, and often wrote letters of en- 
couragement to them while he resided at Strasburg. 
At last they invited him to return and take up the work 
where he had left off. They urgently and repeatedly 
called him to make his home among them again. On 
September 13, 1541, he made his entrance into Ge- 
neva amid the joyful acclamations of the people. The 
council gave him a house and garden for a home, and 
a salary of five hundred florins, twelve measures of 
wheat, and two tubs of wine. 

Calvin was now master, and thoroughly did he rule. 
Every kind of vice was sternly repressed, and crime re- 
lentlessly punished. The city thronged with the best 
and bravest of Protestant refugees from various parts 
of Europe. John Knox and others of his ilk were 
there. They greatly helped in this moral revolution. 
The effect was tremendous. Never since the best days 
of Israel had any community been so completely re- 
generated and conformed to the ideals of morality as 
was Geneva under the rule of Calvin. It became at 
once the refuge and the training school of the Re- 
formers of all lands — "a city set upon a hill" indeed. 
Students thronged the lecture-room of Calvin; the 
churches were crowded with earnest worshippers; 
printing-presses poured out streams of evangelical lit- 
erature that flowed to all parts of Europe; the Re- 
former established manufactories to furnish work and 
livelihood for the people; and the whole community 
throbbed with a pure and earnest life. 

In the midst of this hive Calvin toiled and wrote as 
the animating power. His labors were incredible,. 



140 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

though his body was diseased. His imperial intellect 
towered supreme over a crumbling tenement, and 
seemed almost to defy the laws of nature. The ser- 
mons he preached, the letters he wrote, the books he 
published, and all in so short a life, attest a miraculous 
man. He seemed almost to have been born full-grown, 
for though his Institutes were published at twenty- 
seven, he had nothing to change in them a quarter of 
a century afterwards. 

Calvin has been so maliciously and persistently vili- 
fied that the world has come almost to despise one of 
its greatest benefactors. They do not see the real 
man, but only a caricature of him. A gloomy tyrant, 
fierce, cruel and narrow, is the man whom a milk- 
blooded Christendom now declares to have been the 
Reformer of Geneva. This is a faint defence of its own 
lack of principle and godliness. Calvin was firm, but 
he was modest ; he was brave, but he was also gentle. 
He was refined, devout, spiritual, loving among his 
family and friends. But he was intolerant of iniquity. 
The truth is, Calvin hated sin, and that is the reason 
the world hated Calvin. 

Ernest Renan, the skeptic, said he was " the most 
Christian man of his generation." Prof. Dorner de- 
clares that " Calvin was equally great in intellect and 
character, lovely in social life, full of tender sympathy 
and faithfulness to friends, yielding and forgiving to- 
wards personal offences, but inexorably severe when 
he saw the honor of God obstinately and malignantly 
attacked." Theodore Beza, who knew him best, wrote : 
" Having been an observer of Calvin's life for sixteen 
years, I may with perfect right testify that we have in 



JOHN CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 141 

this man a most beautiful example of a Christian life 
and death, which it is easy to defame, but difficult to 
imitate." 

Calvin was of middle stature, and thin from disease 
and toil. He had a pale, chiselled face, long beard, 
black hair, a prominent nose, and eyes that flamed un- 
der a massive, dome-like forehead. His dress was 
plain, scrupulously neat, his habits methodical, and 
his living extremely simple. He slept comparatively 
little, and denied himself needful exercise that he might 
labor with his pen. 

The most serious charge ever brought against Cal- 
vin was in connection with the burning of Servetus. 
There is this to be said about it : The execution of this 
man received almost the unanimous approval of Chris- 
tendom at that time. It was not Calvin's fault alone ; 
it was the sin of the age. But he was not put to death 
for denying the divinity of the Son of God alone ; it 
was more for attempting to overturn the government of 
Geneva and place himself at its head. Calvin prose- 
cuted him for heresy, but when he was condemned to 
die, begged that it be by the sword, and not by what 
he called "the atrocity" of the stake. The council 
decreed it otherwise, and he was burned. 

We have heard too much of the Servetus affair ; it 
has been maliciously exaggerated and perverted, to in- 
jure the good name of one of the greatest of the chil- 
dren of men. 

Calvin lived to see his doctrines adopted by the Re- 
formed of the greater part 'of Europe. His life was 
pre-eminently successful, and it closed in peace. He 
literally wore himself out. When he felt the end ap- 



142 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

proaching he called for the councillors of the city, and 
admonished them to be faithful to the Preformation. 
He gave advice and instruction to friends, co-laborers 
and pupils. A profound impression was made upon 
all about him by his calm courage and faith in the 
presence of the dread enemy. He was passing by the 
gate of suffering into the golden city of peace. 

On the 27th of May, 1564, he gently expired, lean- 
ing on the breast of Theodore Beza, in the fifty-fifth 
year of his age. 

So far as is known, there is no monument to John 
Calvin anywhere on earth, except a block of marble, 
which could be covered with two hands, over his grave 
in the suburbs of Geneva, marked with the Latin in- 
itials of his name. It is hardly an excuse for this, in 
these monument-building days, to say, what is un- 
doubtedly true, that if Calvin had been asked, he 
would have willed it so, and that he needs no monu- 
ment. His life and teachings will be remembered to 
the world's end. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The Huguenots. 

THIS name, now so illustrious from the virtues and 
achievements, in war and peace, of those who have 
borne it, was at first a term of reproach. Some derive 
it from a German word, JEidgenossen, which means con- 
federates ; others from Hugh {Hugues) Capet, whose 
descendants were supported by the French Protestants 
in their political aspirations. The most probable the- 
ory is that Huguenot was a name which grew out of a 
popular superstition in Tours, that a certain goblin, le 
roy Hugon, roamed the streets of that city at night. 
The persecuted Reformers, being obliged to go about and 
to hold their meetings under cover of darkness, were 
called Huguenots or goblins, subjects of le roy Hugon. 
Whatever may have been the origin of their name, 
the people who wore it stand in history as one of the 
noblest and most beneficent races that have ever lived. 
There are two others of like character — the Puritans 
and the Covenanters. These three races of religious 
and political reformers have accomplished more for 
the advancement of man in modern times than all other 
influences combined. In fact they have been practi- 
cally the authors of civil and religious liberty, and 
thus may be said to have made the civilization of the 
present day. The ultimate source of the power that 
inspired all these heroic peoples was derived from Ge- 

143 



144 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

neva, and the soul of Geneva was John Calvin. A 
weak, modern sentimentalism need not attempt to deny 
it. The truth must be told, and it will be, at last, that 
all the world may read. 

The Huguenots were the French Reformers. The 
Reformation of France did not emanate from Geneva; 
quite the reverse ; the Reformation in Geneva was im- 
ported from France. But after Geneva was reformed 
it became the' capital of the French Reformation, and 
the Frenchman who presided in Geneva was the one 
who furnished the intelligence, the doctrine and the 
organization for his brethren in the land of his birth. 
Calvin's Institutes and his letters contributed the doc- 
trinal basis of the prodigious struggle which was so- 
long waged in France. 

The popular instruments of the Reform were the Bible 
and the Psalm-book ; the former by Jacques Le Fevre 
d'Etaples, the latter by Clement Marot. Le Fevre gave 
the Scriptures to the French people in their own tongue, 
translating it from the Latin Vulgate. His Bibles were 
scattered throughout France, and the Reformation in 
Geneva originated largely from their circulation there, 
before the advent of Calvin. To fill the heart with 
truth and the lips with praise is the work of all true reli- 
gious teachers, and this was done with remarkable suc- 
cess in the French Reformation. The Roman Catholic 
Church had taken away from the people the Bible and 
the singing of God's praise ; the Reformation restored 
both in all lands whither it made its way. Protestant- 
ism may be said to be the mother of popular j)salmody. 
Marot translated the Psalms of David into French verse, 
and set them to popular music. Music gives wings to 



THE HUGUENOTS. 145 

words, and so these excellent embodiments of doctrine 
and devotion flew all over France. They found their 
way to the homes of the poor, the palaces of the no- 
bility, to the camps of the soldiers, and to the sailors 
on the sea. The Huguenot soldiers would kneel in 
prayer on the battle-field, then rise to their feet, and, 
with a psalm of Marot upon their lips, rush into the 
conflict. The same thing characterized Cromwell's 
Puritans and the Covenanters of Scotland. There was 
an angelic hymn chanted over the cradle of Christ, and 
no great religious reform has ever been effected in his 
name without singing. "Let the people praise theej 
O God, let all the people praise thee ! " 

The Eeformation in France may be said to have 
begun in 1512, when Lefevre d'Etaples, a professor in 
the University of Paris, the same who afterwards trans- 
lated the Bible, issued a Latin Commentary on the 
Pauline Epistles, in which he set forth the doctrine of 
justification by faith. In 1516, William Bri^onnet was 
appointed Bishop of Meaux. He was a patron of learn- 
ing, and an advocate of a certain measure of reforma- 
tion in the church. He gathered about himself a num- 
ber of evangelical men, among whom was William Farel, 
and the Gospel was faithfully preached throughout his 
diocese. Opposition naturally arose, and under threats 
from the ecclesiastical authorities these gospelizers were 
scattered. But that only caused the fire to be kindled 
in a larger number of places, and the work went on. 

Protestantism being associated with the revival of 

learning as well as religion, it was favored at first by 

Francis L, king of France, who was ambitious to be 

considered a patron of letters. His sister, the noble 

13 



146 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

Margaret, Duchess of Angouleme, encouraged him in 
fostering the Reformation. But a stronger influence 
of a different nature was brought to bear upon the 
politic monarch, and, under pressure from the papal 
hierarchy, who understood the drift of the new move- 
ment far better than he did, Francis became ultimately 
a bitter foe to the Reformation. Leo X. made a treaty 
with him, by which the king would receive certain ma- 
terial concessions in consideration of his defence of the 
church. So far did he go in the fulfillment of his com- 
pact, that in 1535 we see him presiding over an execu- 
tion, when six Protestants were burned alive before his 
eyes. So great did the holy ardor of this defender of 
religion wax that he declared, in a paroxysm of devo- 
tion, he would cut off his right arm if it became in- 
fected with heresy. Under this religious example other 
murders followed apace, and in 1545 twenty-two towns 
and villages on the river Durance, inhabited by "Wal- 
denses, were devastated by an armed expedition. The 
work of this destroyer of the homes and lives of his 
subjects was carried on after his death by his successor, 
a son worthy of his father, Henry II., a bigoted and 
licentious monarch. 

But God was on the weak side, and the Huguenots 
increased like the children of Jacob in Egypt. The 
pen of Calvin and the printing-presses of Geneva were 
busy, and the breath of the Spirit brought from that 
tree to France the leaves which were for the healing of 
the nation. Stringent laws against the importation of 
books from Geneva availed nothing, and the land was 
full of them. The Bible, the voice of God to the peo- 
ple, and the Psalm Book, the voice of the people to 



THE HUGUENOTS. 147 

God — one the heavenly call, the other its earthly re- 
sponse — were all over France. Nothing but death 
could stop them, if that. This was the only available 
weapon, and it has always been a favorite one with the 
vicegerent of the meek and lowly Jesus. To convert 
men by murdering all who refused to obey the pope 
was about the way of it ; so now for blood in good 
earnest. The history of the Huguenots of France is 
written in crimson ink, and it was furnished by their 
own veins. Long ago their Lord had said, "If they 
have persecuted me, they will persecute jou." 

Admiral Coligny, a heroic Protestant, was the leader 
of the good cause. He fitted out several expeditions 
to Brazil, the Carolinas and Florida, to provide relief 
and a refuge for the oppressed. The ubiquitous papacy, 
however, was not easy to escape from, and the most of 
those who emigrated were murdered beyond the sea. 
But their blood baptized North America for Protes- 
tantism. Coligny presented petitions to Francis II., 
husband of Mary Queen of Scots, for liberty of wor- 
ship. This king died opportunely, and Charles IX., 
aged ten, took the throne. The Colloquy of Poissy was 
held September, 1561, when the Reformed had an op- 
portunity of vindicating their rights before the king 
and court. Theodore Beza, Calvin's friend, and Peter 
Martyr, were the chief speakers. The result was the 
promulgation the next year of the famous "Edict of 
January," which conceded liberty to the Protestants 
to meet for worship outside the walled towns. In 
1859 they had met in Paris secretly, and adopted a 
confession and form of church government, largely the 
work of Calvin. This was the first meeting of the 



148 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

National Synod of the Reformed Church of France. 
Their creed and polity agreed fully with that adopted 
by the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church of Scotland the year following. At this time 
there were twenty-one hundred and fifty congregations 
of Huguenots in France, and half a million adherents. 
There never has been a more symmetrical or completely 
developed Presbyterianism than that of the French Be- 
formed Church of the latter half of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. 

Dreadful times were coming to this noble church. 
Charles IX., the king, was a pliable instrument in the 
hands of his mother, Catherine de Medici. She was an 
Italian of Florence, a member of the famous Medici 
family, celebrated alike for their power and their 
crimes. This infamous woman was the wife of one 
king, Henry II. , and the mother of three, Francis II., 
who reigned but one year, Charles IX., and Henry III. 
She was the real ruler of France during the reign of 
Charles IX., and mightily did she wield her power. 
She cunningly played the Guises, her rivals, against 
the Huguenots, until she found it expedient to exter- 
minate the latter altogether. To the partial accom- 
plishment of this diabolical plan she owes her promi- 
nence in history. She devised and had executed, her 
son Charles consenting, the frightful slaughter of Pro- 
testants known as the "massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
Day." It occurred on the festival of the saint whose 
name it bears, August 24th, 1572, the year of John Knox's 
death in Scotland. She decoyed the Huguenot leaders 
to Paris on the pretence of attending a royal marriage, 
and on a Sunday night, at the signal of the tolling of 



THE HUGUENOTS. 149 

the bell of Notre Dame Cathedral, had them assassin- 
ated. Coligny and many other noblemen, and multi- 
tudes of men, women, and children were butchered in 
cold blood, in Paris and other towns, to the number of 
seventy-five thousand. There is no blacker page in 
the annals of crime than this, and yet the pope had 
medals struck off, and Te Deums sung in Rome, in 
honor of it. When Knox heard it, on his bed in his 
last sickness, he pronounced a curse upon all con- 
cerned in this massacre. It was fulfilled, not because 
the Scotch Reformer was a prophet, but because there 
is a just God in heaven, who has declared, " Vengeance 
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Charles IX. 
deserved the misery which filled his soul, and, at last, 
he died from a strange disease which bathed him in his 
own gore, while he cried, "Blood! blood!" and went 
to meet his God. 

It would be tedious to record the civil wars which 
were waged between the Huguenots and their enemies. 
The siege of Rochelle, a Protestant stronghold, consti- 
tutes an important episode. In 1584 the king's only 
brother died, and thus Henry of Navarre became heir 
to the throne. But this Henry was a Protestant ; so 
the Guises, who also aspired to tho crown, with the 
support of the king of Spain, made war upon Henry 
III., and compelled him to proscribe the Reformed re- 
ligion. This led to the eighth civil war, and, in a bat- 
tle at Contras, the Huguenots were victorious. In 
1589 Henry III. was assassinated, and Henry of Na- 
varre became king, under the title of Henry IV. 

This was not a triumph of the Huguenot cause, but 
of Henry of Navarre. This prince, having received 



150 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

the crown, was too politic to stand manfully by his 
old friends. Henry IV. abjured Protestantism for 
state reasons, but was induced, in 1598, to issue a 
proclamation, called, from the place of its publication, 
the "Edict of Nantes," giving a large measure of liberty 
and security to the Protestants. This celebrated con- 
cession was not long observed. There were vexatious 
infractions of it from the outset, though it was con- 
firmed successively by subsequent administrations un- 
der Marie de Medici, Louis XIII. , and Louis XIV. 
Louis XIV., a powerful prince, was very intoleranb 
towards the Huguenots. They were deprived of many 
of their places of worship, and forbidden by law to en- 
gage in one employment and another, were robbed of 
their property, and, by a persistent hostility, were dis- 
couraged and repressed in every way. Those were 
the days of the terrible dragonnades, which were set on 
foot to compel, by force, conformity to the religion of 
the government. Louis XIV. was a stern and unbend- 
ing man. Having once set out to exterminate the 
Protestants, he was not to be diverted from his course. 
At last, under a pretence of there being no longer any 
Huguenots to protect, he repealed the Edict of Nantes, 
in 1685. This was a bold and cruel act, and was the 
worst blow ever inflicted upon France. It required all 
ministers of the gospel to leave the kingdom within a 
fortnight. Any other person attempting to emigrate, 
if a man, was to be sent to the galleys, or if a woman, 
the penalty was to be imprisonment and confiscation 
of property. No exercise of the Protestant religion 
was allowed. This inhuman measure was carried out; 
Louis XIV. was just the man to do it. But what was 



THE HUGUENOTS. 151 

the result? It destroyed more than half of the com- 
merce and manufacturing industry of the realm. These 
industrious, honest, virtuous Huguenots were the very 
bone and sinew of France. The king, a blind auto- 
crat, supposed they would give up their religion in 
preference to their living and homes ; but he was mis- 
taken. From four to eight hundred thousand of the 
best people of France fled from their native land. It 
was that or death; they could not violate their con- 
sciences. One thousand ministers were made home- 
less ; six hundred of them emigrated to foreign lands, 
and one hundred were slain or sent to the galleys. 

Such a suicidal policy could not fail to weaken the 
nation, and not to this day has France recovered from 
its loss. Was the awful revolution which followed 
in the reign of Louis XVI. the penalty or the natural 
consequence of this crime? Both. God punishes 
nations in this world, and visits the sins of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and fourth generation 
of them that hate him. The element France lacked 
in the stormy times that succeeded was just such con- 
science, godliness and character as these her best sons 
possessed, to hold the nation to its moorings. But for 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and but for the 
cruelties which preceded and followed the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, by which the nation lost its best 
blood, the frightful scenes of the French Revolution 
could never have been enacted. The conscience and 
moral power of the kingdom were gone, and the only 
way to regain what was lost was to develop, somehow, 
a leaven of good men. 

Louis XYI. published in 1787 the Edict of Tolera- 



152 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

tion, allowing liberty of worship. The Republic con- 
firmed this, and now pays the salaries of all Lutheran 
and Reformed as well as Roman Catholic pastors. 

"What became of the million refugees that had left 
France at various times for conscience sake? They 
settled in many countries of Europe and America, be- 
ing generally received with delight, and they every 
where proved a blessing. They transferred their en- 
ergies to Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, 
England and America. They took foremost places 
wherever they settled, as leaders in all trades, arts, 
sciences and professions, adding greatly to the wealth 
of all the communities among which they came. No 
emigrants to foreign countries have ever had more in- 
fluence, in proportion to their numbers, than the Hu- 
guenots. Their name is now written in gold ; none is 
more honorable. Their sons have risen to the highest 
posts in England and the United States, and all who 
are of this race are looked upon as belonging to the 
nobility of the kingdom of God. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
The Heroes op Holland. 

AFOBCE is measured by the resistance which it is 
able to overcome, and the overcoming of resist- 
ance intensifies force. A current of galvanic electricity, 
driven through fifty miles cf fine wire, becomes trans- 
formed into that brilliant fluid, which in a summer 
storm flashes between earth and sky. The people of 
Holland had a vast amount of resistance, in climate, 
land and sea, to overcome in establishing and devel- 
oping their national greatness. But having overcome 
these, they were prepared to combat political and mili- 
tary forces which were brought to bear to accomplish 
their destruction. Having conquered matter, they could 
conquer man. The traveller through those low-lying 
countries which constitute the territory of Holland, 
wonders that people ever dared to live there, to 
make it their home, to establish farms, vineyards, cities, 
public highways, and all the appurtenances of a supe- 
rior civilization. The ground is utterly lacking in slope ; 
mists and drenching clouds overshadow it; and the 
stormiest of all seas thunders against its shores from 
the north, threatening to engulf it with each recurring 
tempest. The Hollanders have thrown up ramparts, or 
dikes, from behind which to fight the hostile sea, and 
here they have held a world of waters at bay for a 
thousand years. They have learned to contend with 

153 



154 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

vast forces, to be always on the alert for danger, to be 
persistent, patient, frugal, and to fear nothing. 

This was their training, and thus were they fitted 
for the struggles by which their race has become fa- 
mous in resisting as tyrannical oppression as was ever 
brought to bear upon a devoted people. 

The people of the Netherlands — lowlands — or Hol- 
land, owed their first political existence to their Roman 
conquerors in early times. They were by no means 
easy to subdue, and the ancient historians, including 
Caesar and Tacitus, bear uniform testimony to their 
valor. The Romans exacted tribute from them in the 
form of soldiers to fight the battles of the empire. The 
Batavian horsemen for a great while formed the body- 
guard of the Roman emperor. Many of them accom- 
panied Agricola in his expedition against Britain, and 
helped him to the conquest of that island. 

"While under Roman domination and the influence 
of the wise laws which the Romans everywhere estab- 
lished, these fierce warriors of the north began to take 
on the manners of civilization and to crystallize into a 
political body. Dikes were thrown up, canals cut, and 
agriculture flourished. 

The monarchy of the Franks, which arose out of the 
ruins of ancient Roman Gaul, in the sixth and seventh 
centuries took forcible possession of the provinces of 
the Netherlands, and established Christianity among the 
people. The conquest was completed under Charles 
Martel. Charlemagne united all these countries, and 
formed of them one department of his mighty empire. 
After the division of the dominions of Charlemagne, 
under his descendants, the Netherlands very often 



THE HEBOES OF HOLLAND. 155 

changed masters. During the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, 
and thirteenth centuries, the low countries were split 
up into many small sovereignties, which were some- 
times ruled by the German emperor, and sometimes 
"by the king of France. The Roman Catholic Church 
had now become very powerful there, as in other lands, 
%nd had absorbed a vast proportion of the wealth of 
the people. By purchase, marriage, and conquest, the 
Dukes of Burgundy gradually acquired the better part 
of the provinces, and built up a formidable state, which 
was in every respect powerful, and lacked nothing but 
a name to make it one of the great kingdoms of Eu- 
rope. Charles the Bold, one of the Dukes of Bur- 
gundy, excited to ambition by the greatness of his re- 
sources, set out to add large territories to his already 
great domain by conquering the whole stretch of coun- 
try from the mouth of the Rhine, and the Zuyder Zee, 
down to Alsace. Even Switzerland trembled before 
his threatening advance. But misfortune overtook 
him, and not only was his army cut to pieces, but he 
lost his own life in battle, and his almost unrecogniza- 
ble remains were found, the day following the fatal 
event, imbedded in the gory ice of the wintry field. 

The sole heiress of Charles was Maria, one of the 
richest and most fascinating princesses of the period. 
She was courted by many royal suitors, but the most 
formidable of them were Louis XL of France, who 
sought the hand of the fair princess for his son the 
Dauphin, and Maximilian, of Austria, who wished her 
for himself. The latter carried off the prize, but it 
was to the Netherlands the beginning of sorrows. The 
fruit of this union was Philip the Fair, who in turn mar- 



156 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Tied a Spanish bride, who brought as her portion the 
extensive kingdom built up in two worlds by Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella. The son and heir by this marriage 
was Charles of Austria, who united in himself the sov- 
ereignties of his own country, the kingdoms of Spain, 
the two Sicilies, the New World, and the Netherlands. 
It will thus be seen that by royal marriages a vast em- 
pire had come under the control of one man, and na- 
tions of very diverse and discordant characters had 
been brought into close and uncongenial relations. 
These complications were fraught with momentous con- 
sequences to the Netherlands. They thus came to be 
ruled by a foreigner, who lived far away from their 
country, who did not understand them, and whose 
main motive was to use them for all they were worth. 
The Dutch had by this time become a very power- 
ful people, and carried on a commerce which extended 
to all parts of the world. Having beaten back the sea 
from their land, they went on to become its masters, 
and to make it the means of enriching their nation 
with spoils brought by its winds and waves from every 
shore. Bruges had long maintained a commanding 
position among the commercial cities of Europe, but 
now Antwerp and Amsterdam gained the ascendency, 
the former being in advance. The trade of Antwerp 
-exceeded, for a time, that of all the rest of Northern 
Europe. At the opening of the [Reformation period, 
it had a population of 100,000 souls. One reason of 
its ascendency was that it showed great tolerance for 
the new religious opinions and aspirations which were 
becoming widely diffused throughout the world, espe- 
cially in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Great 



THE HEEOES OP HOLLAND. 157 

Britain. Many of the best merchants of surrounding 
communities, finding it disagreeable to live in the 
midst of hostile influences, removed to Antwerp, that 
they might enjoy liberty of conscience. They added 
greatly to the prosperity of the city, because men who 
are willing to give up their homes and become exiles 
for the sake of principle and truth may be counted 
upon for useful service in all departments of human 
industry. In the city of Antwerp had been established 
by the sovereigns of the Netherlands, fairs for trade, 
which were free of all tolls or customs. These fairs, 
which were held semi-annually, and lasted for six 
weeks at a time, were frequented by merchants from 
every quarter of Europe. It is easy to see that such a 
policy of liberality and enterprise would inure greatly 
to the wealth and prosperity of the city. The country 
of Holland does not produce one-hundredth part of 
what is necessary to maintain its dense population. 
They had neither timber nor maritime stores, coal nor 
metal, yet their commerce brought them all of these 
commodities which they needed. Their fields were 
not fertile, but their ships brought to their doors the 
harvests of all lands. Trade is but commercial recip- 
rocity, and as they had vast manufacturing establish- 
ments, they were prepared to furnish other nations 
with the products of their looms and manufactories in 
exchange for the fruits of their fields. 

All this material prosperity, together with the moral 
and intellectual progress of the Dutch, excited the cu- 
pidity of Philip II. of Spain, who had inherited a 
suzerainty over the Netherlands, and he laid very 
heavy taxes upon these prosperous communities. This 
U 



158 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

was impolitic and unwise, and laid a serious strain 
upon the already weakening tie that bound the Nether- 
lands to his crown. Restrictions placed upon Dutch 
commerce were hard enough to bear, but when the 
gloomy Spanish king, in his narrow bigotry, went 
further, and attempted to take away from these brave 
people their religious liberties, they sternly refused to 
acquiesce. The result was a protracted and heroic 
struggle, which ended most disastrously for the Span- 
ish crown. 

Philip II. had come to the throne of Spain on the 
abdication of his illustrious father, Charles V., and was 
thereby made sovereign of the most extensive empire 
on earth. Not only was Spain his own, but Milan, the 
two Sicilies, the Netherlands, and the greater part of 
the New World, fell under his sway. The other three 
of the four great nations which held the balance of 
power at that period were England, France and Ger- 
many. In the beginning of Philip's reign, by his mar- 
riage with Mary of England, the forces of that country 
were also under his command. The king of Spain and 
his British consort were in full sympathy with one an- 
other in the matter of religion, both being very devout 
and intolerant Koman Catholics, and determined, at 
all hazards, to extirpate the heresy of Protestantism. 
The only difference between them was, that Mary 
burned Protestants at the stake, without delay or for- 
mality, while Philip prepared them for their doom by 
the rack, the fiery pincers, and such other delicate de- 
vices for converting heretics as could be invented by 
those thoughtful ecclesiastics who presided over the 
famous Inquisition. Having learned that the fatal 



THE HEROES OF HOLLAND. 159 

.heresies were cherished by the "Waldenses in the val- 
leys of Piedmont, Philip sent a dispatch to their gov- 
ernor, at Milan, ordering that this sin be exterminated, 
and concluded with two remarkable words, " alwrcad 
todos" — hang them all. Being informed that the same 
opinions prevailed in Calabria, he commanded that of 
those who held them, one-half shonld be hanged, and 
the other burned. 

The attempt to carry out this holy zeal in the 
Netherlands produced a revolution, and at last cost 
Philip one-third of his dominions. The Inquisition 
worked well in Spain, but the people of the low coun- 
tries were too independent, as well as too far from the 
shadow of the Spanish throne, to submit to such 
heroic treatment. Margaret of Parma, an illegitimate 
daughter of Philip's father, Charles Y., had long held 
the position of regent of the Netherlands, and her rule, 
while not without a certain force and discretion, yet 
was not sufficient to keep down the rising spirit of in- 
dependence. The teachings of Calvin and Luther had 
made great progress among the Dutch. Each pro- 
vince had its own laws and customs, and was under 
the command of a stadth older or a governor; but no 
general law could be imposed without the consent of 
the representatives of all the provinces. In 1559, the 
year before the first Scotch General Assembly met in 
Edinburgh under the leadership of John Knox, Philip 
conferred the government of Holland, Friesland, Zea- 
land, and Utrecht upon William of Nassau, prince of 
Orange, who was also a count of the German empire. 
This was a most unfortunate appointment for the king 
of Spain, but happy, in every way, for the best inter- 



160 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

ests of the Netherlander ; for William became the 
saviour of his country, and delivered it from the bond- 
age of Spanish misrule. 

It was reported at the Spanish court that the Eefor- 
mation had taken root among the Dutch. This aroused 
the anger of Philip, who declared he would rather not 
rule at all than to rule over heretics. He determined 
to create new bishops, to establish the Inquisition, with 
full powers in the Netherlands, and to require uniform 
submission to the Roman Catholic religion. To effect 
this he purposed to abrogate the ancient laws of the 
provinces, and impose a political system of his own. 

The news of this scheme produced great alarm among 
the inhabitants of the low countries, and a meeting of 
the chief noblemen was held, at which it was deter- 
mined to send two of their number to lay their humble 
remonstrances before the king of Spain. The answer 
to this was to send the cruel Duke of Alva, with an 
arnry, to compel submission and to suppress the re- 
bellion. 

The two counts, Egmont and Horn, together with 
eighteen other gentlemen, were beheaded by order of 
the Inquisition in Brussels, and the Prince of Orange 
was sentenced to meet the same fate. The magnani- 
mous, talented and brave William now determined 
upon resistance, and the emancipation of his country 
from the merciless tyranny. He gathered an army, 
and, after overcoming some of the most important 
garrisons in Holland and Zealand, he was solemnly 
proclaimed stadth older of the United Provinces by a 
general convocation of the states at Doit. The gaunt- 
let was then thrown down boldly to Philip II., and 



THE HEROES OF HOLLAND. 161 

the Roman Catholic religion was declared forever 
abolished from the provinces. 

"War began now in good earnest. The Spanish 
troops laid siege to Haarlem, and captured it. This 
victory was celebrated by the hanging of all the magis- 
trates, Protestant ministers, and above fifteen hundred 
of the citizens. About this time the bloody Alva re- 
signed his commission, and returned to his master, 
boasting that, during the time of his administration in 
the Netherlands, he had put to death eighteen thou- 
sand persons by the hand of the public executioner. 
His successor pursued the same inhuman policy of 
butchery ; but it was not destined to succeed. Heaven 
had determined otherwise, faith had been vindicated, 
the truth declared, and the Dutch people trained for 
their future work. The Spaniards besieged Leyden, 
but it was heroically defended by the Prince of Orange. 
The Netherlander threw down their dikes, and al- 
lowed the sea to flood the land. The marauders en- 
deavored to drain it off, but were unsuccessful. Finally 
the Spaniards gave up the undertaking, and the Pro- 
testants had opportunity to combine for their common 
welfare. All the seventeen provinces had suffered 
from the tyranny of Spain, but many of their leaders 
were jealous of the influence of William; so only seven 
provinces asserted their independence. These seven, 
Guelderland, Holland, Zealand, Priesland, Utrecht, 
Overyssel, and Groningen, met, by their representatives, 
at Utrecht, and, on January 23, 1579, formed the cele- 
brated treaty by which they became a commonwealth. 
By this treaty of Utrecht the foundation was laid for 
the future greatness of the Netherlands. 



162 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

The news of these proceedings exasperated the king 
of Spain, who proscribed William the prince of Orange, 
and set a price of 25,000 crowns upon his head. The 
response of "William to this infamous proclamation is 
one of the noblest things recorded in history. He 
proudly addresses the king of Spain as his equal, and 
arraigns him before civilized mankind for his perfidy, 
injustice, and outrageous cruelty, and declares that he 
too might hire an assassin to take off his enemy, but 
that he would scorn such base cowardice, and, for his 
part, he would depend for his own security upon the 
point of his sword. 

Philip, however, succeeded in his unkingly scheme, 
and a human brute, one Gerard, a native of Franche- 
compte, assassinated William of Orange, the most illus- 
trious ruler of his age, and one whose name deserves 
to stand with those of the greatest and best of human 
heroes. The murder of William by Philip's hired as- 
sassin is the darkest spot upon the base character of 
the Spanish king. 

But the spirit of the glorious patriot survived in the 
person of his noble son, Maurice. He was declared 
stadtholder in the room of his father while he was but 
eighteen years of age. Though so young, he was 
worthy of the trust, -and soon showed himself one of 
the greatest generals of his time. His military talents 
were not without a worthy field for exercise, for he was 
confronted by a Spanish army, under the Duke of 
Parma, who was conceded to be one of the first gene- 
rals in Europe. The siege of Antwerp, which was con- 
ducted by Parma, reflected great credit upon his skill, 
as well as upon the heroism of its defenders. The 



THE HEROES OF HOLLAND. • 163 

city was taken, at length, by means of an immense 
rampart, which he raised upon the river Scheld, in 
much the same manner as Tyre was captured by Alex- 
ander the Great. 

"When help was most needed, Queen Elizabeth of 
England sent an army of four thousand men to defend 
the infant republic. With this timely assistance and 
their own resources, above all by the grace and favor 
of God, they were enabled to resist successfully the at- 
tacks of the most powerful monarch in the world. All 
the time they were frugal, simple in their manners, 
constant and brave. They deserved the success which 
they achieved, and in achieving it, set an example of 
heroic devotion to conscience and truth, which might 
well be followed by all mankind. Their virtue has 
been rewarded, and not only have the Dutch been 
prosperous and happy at home, but the blessings of 
their nation have been shared by many lands. Their 
descendants in all countries have excelled in the arts 
and sciences, and have risen to the highest positions of 
honor and influence in both church and state. 



"B 



CHAPTER XV. 

John Knox, Scotland's Gbeatest Man. 

URN tliem in cellars, for the smoke of Mr. Pat- 
rick Hamilton hath infected as many as it hath 
blown upon," was the shrewd advice given the arch- 
bishop after he had sacrificed a young nobleman, whose 
name stands at the head of the list of Scottish martyrs. 
God does not let his martyrs die in vain, and it was 
found that many were "infected" with the spirit of 
the Christian hero who had given up his life for Christ 
and truth. This was in 1528. In 1548 Cardinal Bea- 
toun made the mistake of committing to the flames in 
St. Andrew's another one of God's saints — George 
"Wishart. The tragic scene was enacted in the court- 
yard of the castle, in the presence of Cardinal Beatoun 
and his friends, who were seated on the battlements 
among cushions, curtains, and tapestry, to witness his 
dying agonies. " O thou Saviour of the world, have 
mercy upon me! Father in heaven, I commend my 
spirit into thy holy hands!" were the words of the 
martyr's last prayer. The executioner, on his knees, 
begged pardon for what he was compelled to do, and 
it was given with a kiss. As the flames rose around 
him, Wishart cried out, " This fire torments my body, 
but in no way abates my spirit!" Then, looking 
towards the cardinal, he uttered these memorable 
words: "He who in such state from that high place 

164 



john knox, Scotland's greatest man. 165 

feecleth his eyes upon my torments, within a few days 
shall be hanged out at that same window, to be seen 
with as much ignominy as he now leaneth there in 
pride." The rope was tightened about his neck, and a 
noble voice silenced on earth, to be heard among the 
blood-washed throng in heaven, A number of noble- 
men and others made the prophecy of "Wishart come 
true, and in a few days the body of the hated cardinal 
was dangling from the battlements of St. Andrews. 

But George "Wishart left a worthy successor behind 
him. John Knox had been converted under his teach- 
ing, had loved him devotedry, followed him about as a 
faithful defender, and could hardly be restrained from 
going into voluntary martyrdom with his spiritual 
father, who generously insisted, "Nay, return to your 
bairns (pupils). One is sufficient for a sacrifice." The 
heroic death of George Wishart was an inspiration to 
his friend as long as he lived. St. Andrews remained 
in the hands of the Protestants, and John Knox was 
engaged as a teacher there. John Rough, a chaplain, 
became acquainted with him, and recognizing his qual- 
ifications for the sacred office, had him called to the 
pastorate of the church. The call was announced to 
Knox in the presence of the congregation. It was a 
great surprise, and he rushed weeping from the 
church ; but, after prayer and deep thought, he decided 
that he could not disregard the voice of God through 
his people. Knox accepted, entered upon his work, 
and at once began in his pulpit a mighty attack upon 
the superstition, the tyranny, and the corruptions of 
the Romish hierarchy. He showed the genius of the 
true Reformer, however, by going to the heart of the 



166 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

matter, and denouncing the Church of Rome as anti- 
Christ. The priesthood were thus placed on the de- 
fensive, and the Protestants were fired with the enthu- 
siasm of a great and positive mission. They were not 
apologizing for th'eir existence, but were engaged in 
showing that Eomanism had no right to exist ; and a 
work was thus begun which did ultimately destroy the 
papacy as an organization in Scotland. 

John Knox, who from that day was the leading 
figure among the Protestants of Scotland, as Calvin 
and Luther, the other two of the mighty triumvirate 
of the Reformation, were respectively in Switzerland 
and Germany, was born either in Giffbrd or Hadding- 
ton, probably the latter, in 1505. He early mastered 
Latin, and acquired Greek before he attained middle- 
age, but was ignorant of Hebrew until he had passed 
forty-five. In the University of Glasgow, where he 
prosecuted his studies, he was greatly influenced, and 
for good, by John Major, the Professor of Moral Phil- 
osophy. He was a man of liberal ideas and strong 
principles, and helped the aspiring mind of his pupil 
to a plane of liberty, of thought, and investigation. 
Knox, like all the other great Reformers, was a hard 
student, and, like them also in another particular, he 
was devoted to the writings of Aurelius Augustine, 
whose writings, next to the Scriptures, contributed most 
to the bringing about of the mighty religious revolu- 
tion of the sixteenth century. Knox served as a teacher 
for some years, at the same time pursuing his studies 
and ripening for the work God had called him to do. 

Soon after he was made pastor at St. Andrew's, 
which was an important university town, his influence 



john knox, Scotland's greatest man. 167 

became so potent and threatening as to make it neces- 
sary for the popish authorities to put him down. A 
public disputation was arranged, in order that he might 
be crushed by logic and eloquence ; but he vanquished 
his opponents, and came out of the conflict stronger 
than ever. The aid of military power was invoked, 
and the castle of St. Andrew's was besieged. Com- 
pelled at last to surrender, the Protestants were carried 
away, with Knox among them, to France, where they 
endured incredible sufferings, as galley slaves, for a 
period of nineteen months. This was another stage in 
the curriculum of his preparation for the work of es- 
tablishing liberty and truth in Scotland. 

On the intercession of good King Edward VI. of 
England, he was released, and took refuge in that coun- 
try. There he became pastor at Berwick as an English 
clergyman. During his term of service in that town, 
he gained the affections of Marjory Bowes, who after- 
wards became his wife, ever faithful and beloved. His 
preaching at Berwick was too strong to please the 
bishop of the diocese, and he was charged with heresy ; 
but so well did he defend himself that he was com- 
pletely vindicated and transferred to Newcastle. After 
this he was offered by King Edward VI. the position 
of bishop of Bochester, but declined it on the ground 
that the office of bishop, in the Episcopalian sense, was 
unscriptural, and that all God's ministers should stand 
upon an equal footing. He became pastor, at length, 
of a church in London, and afterwards was made one 
of the six chaplains in ordinary to King Edward VI. 
In this position it was not only his duty to take his 
turn in preaching at court and throughout the realm, 



168 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

in establishing and extending the Reformation, but 
also to give advice to the government on religions 
questions affecting the nation. He had referred to 
liim, together with the other chaplains of the king and 
Archbishop Cranmer, the work of revising "The Ar- 
ticles concerning Uniformity in Religion," which then 
(1552) numbered forty-two. Afterwards, in the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth, they were reduced to " TJiirty- 
nine" articles, and in that form they have remained as 
the basis of the Church of England and Episcopal the- 
ology ever since. The seventeenth article, a part of 
which is appended, is strong enough to suit any Cal- 
Tinist: "Predestination to life is the everlasting pur- 
pose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the 
world were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his 
counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damna- 
tion those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of man- 
kind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salva- 
tion, as vessels made to honor." 

He was also called upon to assist in revising the 
Book of Common Prayer. Through his influence, 
largely, the notion of the corporeal presence of Christ 
in the sacrament was excluded. An eminent church- 
man afterwards complained that " a runagate Scot did 
take away the adoration or worshipping of Christ in 
the sacrament, by whose procurement that heresy wast 
put into the communion book; so much prevailed that 
one man's authority at that time." 

The pious young king loved John Knox, and shared 
Lis views, and but for his untimely death, and the ac- 
cession of " Bloody Mary," our Reformer might have 



john knox, Scotland's greatest man. 169 

gone on and made England what Scotland became un- 
der his hand in after years. 

After five years in England, Knox was compelled to 
fly for his life, at the death of Edward VI. , and he took 
refuge in Geneva, the asylum of Protestant refugees 
irora. all countries of Europe. He accepted a call to 
the English Church at Frankfort, but could not remain 
there long on account of the Romanizing tendencies of 
the people. He returned to Geneva to his friend Cal- 
vin, and became pastor of an English congregation. 
There he spent the most quiet three years of his life 
ministering to his flock, which worshipped in the 
" Temple de Notre Dame la Neuve." He wrote many 
letters to his friends in Scotland, and made one visit to 
his native land. He started once to make it his home 
again, but was advised not to come. At last, however, 
in 1559, he was formally called to take charge of the 
"Reformation in Scotland. The time spent in Geneva 
liad been by no means wasted. He was learning and 
ripening for usefulness. The five years of Mary's reign 
in England, when so many of the best men of the 
country were refugees in Geneva, were among the 
most important in the history of the liberties of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. Those refugees returning from 
Calvin's city, after Mary's death, carried back the 
principles and the inspiration which afterwards worked 
out the religious and civil liberties of the English- 
speaking world. 

When it was known that Knox had returned to Scot- 
land, though he was under sentence of death, there was 
general consternation among the papists. He infused 
courage into the friends of the great Reform. " As for 
15 



170 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

the fear of danger that may come to me," said Knox y 
"let no man be solicitous ; for my life is in the custody 
of Him whose glory I seek. I desire the hand and 
weapon of no man to defend me. I present myself 
against the papists of this realm, desiring none other 
armor but God's holy word, and the liberty of my 
tongue." He began at St. Andrew's, where the churches 
were stripped of images, and the monasteries destroyed. 
In Perth the same thing was done, and this was the 
signal for a general iconoclasm throughout Scotland. 
Knox was installed pastor of the great cathedral 
church, St. Giles', in Edinburgh, and at once began a 
fearful bombardment of the intrenched wickedness of a 
thousand years. Nothing stood, nor could stand, be- 
fore his merciless fire. Mary Queen of Scots, exas- 
perated by his audacity, accused him of treason, but 
before her council he defended himself to the point of 
acquittal, in her presence, while she burst into tears of 
wrath. " Better that women weep than bearded men," 
said Knox. Poor, bad, beautiful, unfortunate Mary 
Queen of Scots ! Her two supreme ambitions were to 
become queen of all Britain, and to destroy the Re- 
formation. Mighty Elizabeth of England, and mightier 
Knox of Scotland, were the two insuperable obstacles 
God threw in her path to save his people. Mary's 
smiles, tears and threats were all one to the flinty 
hero, and he went on his way, uprooting popery and 
reforming Scotland as no country ever has been re- 
formed before or since. He had superintendents or 
evangelists travelling all over the land, preaching the 
gospel and organizing the church. He thoroughly 
worked out the Presbyterial system of ecclesiastical 



john knox, Scotland's gkeatest man. 171 

government by kirk (church) sessions, Presbyteries, 
Synods, and General Assemblies, which system has 
been the model of all English-speaking Presbyterians 
from that day to this. The General Assembly met first 
in St. Giles', Edinburgh, 1560, composed of forty lay- 
men and six ministers. In seven years it contained 
two hundred and fifty-two ministers. Knox established 
an elaborate system of public education throughout 
Scotland, beginning with parish schools everywhere, 
followed by higher preparatory schools, and all sur- 
mounted by the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, 
and St. Andrew's. 

But his day was drawing to a close. His work had 
been grandly successful ; no man's more so. His frame 
was wearing out. He had to be almost carried to the 
pulpit, at last; but, as Melville said, "Before he had 
done with his sermon, he was so active and vigorous 
that he was like to ding that pulpit into blads and fly 
out of it." After he became too feeble to walk or be 
carried to the church, he preached to the people from 
the window of the old stone house which still stands in 
the Cannongate. His end was approaching ; his work 
was done. His young wife, Margaret Stewart, who had 
taken the place of the departed Marjory, tenderly 
ministered to his infirmities. " Go read," said he to 
her in his last hour, " where I cast my first anchor." 
This was John xvii. He was asked if he heard the 
prayers offered at his bedside. " "Would to God," said 
he, " that all men had heard them as I have heard 
them ; I praise God for that heavenly sound." He 
heaved a deep sigh, and said, "Now it is come." Then 
ceased the mightiest heart that ever beat between the 



172 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

rocks and sky of Scotland. " Give me Scotland, or I 
die," lie long had prayed. God gave it to him, and he 
died in peace in the year 1572 A. D. 

By his grave Earl Mortoun said, "There lies he who 
never feared the face of man." No nobler eulogy 
could have been pronounced than that. 

The visitor in Edinburgh to-day, passing up the 
High street, sees standing by St. Giles' Church a splen- 
did bronze equestrian statue of Charles II., who little 
deserved a monument, and but a few paces distant, in 
the pavement, under hoof and heel, a small plate of 
brass marks our hero's grave, bearing the simple char- 
acters, "J. K., 1572." John Knox needs no monu- 
ment. His fame is written in the history of mankind. 
Thomas Carlyle, who 'knew a great man when he saw 
him, said: "He is the one Scotchman to whom his 
country and the world owe a debt. Honor him! his 
works have not died. The letter of his works dies, as 
of all men's, but the spirit of it never!" 



CHAPTER XYI. 

The Destruction of the Spanish Armada. 

HUMANLY speaking, if the Spanish Armada had 
not been destroyed, and Philip II., king of Spain, 
foiled in his designs, the tide of the Reformation would 
have been turned back, and Europe have been again 
placed under the power of the pope. 

It is only humanly speaking that we 3an use if in 
connection with this great deliverance of Protestantism 
and Anglo-Saxon civilization. Looking at it from the 
standpoint of Divine providence, it could not have re- 
sulted differently, and there never was any danger of 
Philip the Second's conquering England, because God 
had decreed otherwise. Philip's design was to over- 
throw the government of Queen Elizabeth, to seat 
Mary Queen of Scots, a Roman Catholic, in her place, 
and to restore popery throughout Great Britain. If 
he had succeeded, the whole subsequent history of 
England and Scotland would have been changed ; there 
would have been no Protestant North America, and no 
Anglo-Saxon civilization. It would have made Spain 
the mistress of the world, and that nation would have 
set the type for civilization in the ages which have fol- 
lowed. 

What Philip would have done in England and Scot- 
land had he succeeded in his vast attempt, may be 
easily learned from the history of his treatment of the 

173 



174 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Netherlands in their efforts for religions reformation. 
There are few names more cordially hated than that of 
the Duke of Alva. His portrait makes a good com- 
panion piece with Nero's. He was Philip's chosen in- 
strument for crushiDg Protestantism in the Nether- 
lands. With his army and "Court of Blood," Alva 
endeavored to compel the Dutch to submit to the 
authority of Philip and the pope. They plundered 
the country and the cities, putting men, women and 
children to the sword. Besides those killed in battle, 
eighteen thousand were committed to the executioner. 
This was Alva's boast when he returned to Spain, and 
it was all he could boast of, for the unconquerable 
spirit of the Protestants of the Netherlands was not 
crushed. They were finally successful in accomplish- 
ing their political and religious emancipation, and, 
worn out by ill-health and disaster, the Duke of Alva 
returned to Spain. 

Philip was greatly disappointed by this failure, 
which was, in part, due to the encouragement given 
the Dutch by Queen Elizabeth. His animosity towards 
the British was aggravated by Sir Francis Drake, one 
of their admirals, plundering some Spanish settlements 
in America. The sombre Spaniard sat in his palace, 
the Escurial, and meditated vengeance. His vast do- 
minions, the largest at that time on earth, made him 
the most powerful of sovereigns. But his narrow soul 
was maddened by England's interference with his 
schemes. He determined to crush this Protestant 
power, to aggrandize his own empire, and to restore 
the countries wrested by the Reformation from the 
Roman See to the authority of the pope. Philip walks 



THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 175 

Tip and clown his library with knitted brows, planning 
his conquest of England. Eight hours a day he spends 
at his desk writing; he seldom speaks or allows any 
one to address him. "Wrapped in gloomy haughtiness, 
he secludes himself, and one hears only the scratching 
of his restless pen. He taxes all the resources of his 
great empire. Spain and Portugal are his, the two 
Sicilies, Naples, Milan, Burgundy, the Netherlands. 
He is also sovereign of nearly all the Americas. His 
army is the finest, his navy the strongest, in the 
world. He determines to create a vast armada, or 
ileet of war-ships and transports, to destroy the navy 
of England, and land an army upon its shores. He 
iakes the pope into his co-partnership, and his holiness 
contributes a million of gold ducats to the cause. 

Eor over three years the ship-yards of Sicily, Naples, 
Spain and Portugal resounded with the stroke of ham- 
mer and chisel in constructing the vessels for this vast 
armada. One hundred and thirty ships of the largest 
size were built and armed. They were provided with 
bulwarks four feet in thickness; castles were erected 
over the bow and stern ; sumptuous rooms were pre- 
pared for the officers and nobility ; chapels for worship, 
with pulpits, gilded saints, and madonnas. These were 
manned with twenty thousand soldiers, eight thousand 
seamen, and two thousand galley-slaves, and armed 
with three thousand pieces of cannon. Every ship 
had "two boat-loads of stones to throw in the time of 
light, and wildfire to be given out to the most expert." 
A large contingent of Jesuits, friars and priests were 
to be carried along, to convert the English people when 
the country had been conquered. Among these was 



176 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Don Martin Alaccon, administrator of the Inquisition, 
who had with him a supply of neck-stretchers, thumb- 
screws and pincers, to use upon such Protestants as 
could not be won over by gentler arguments. 

A grand army was being collected simultaneously in 
Flanders, commanded by the Duke of Parma, to be 
ready for transportation to England as soon as the 
Spanish had secured a footing there. 

"What was England to do in the presence of such 
formidable preparations ? The greatest armament ever 
gathered was preparing for invasion. Could England 
resist it successfully? The little island had to rule its 
destinies just then a woman by sex, but in her spirit 
and character a great sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. 
She lost little time in preparing for the attack. Among 
her lieutenants were the Earl of Leicester, the Earl of 
Essex, Lord Burleigh (Sir William Cecil), Sir Francis 
Walsingham, Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and 
the immortal Sir Walter Raleigh. Under the foster- 
ing care of Elizabeth, and the regenerating effect of 
the Reformation, England was beginning to have a 
literature, and such men as Bacon, Spencer, and 
Shakespeare were rising to illustrate their age before 
all the world. 

Forces were collected, and a navy built with all pos- 
sible speed. The whole patriotic and religious enthu- 
siasm of the nation was aroused. The heroic queen 
repaired to the camps at Tilbury, arrayed in martial 
attire, and delivered before her army the following 
memorable address : " My loving people, we have been 
persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to 
take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multi- 



THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA, 177 

tudes for fear of treachery ; but I assure you, I do not 
desire .to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. 
Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself 
that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength 
and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my 
subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you at 
this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being 
resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or 
die amongst you all ; to lay down for my God and for 
my kingdom and for my people my honor and my 
blood even in the dust. I know I have but the body 
of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a 
king, and of a king of England, too, and think foul 
scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe 
should dare to invade the borders of my realms; to 
which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I 
myself will take up arms ; I myself will be your gene- 
ral, judge, and rewarder of your virtues in the field. I 
know already by your forwardness that you have de- 
served rewards and crowns, and we do assure }^ou, on 
the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In 
the meantime my lieutenant-general shall be in my 
stead, than whom never prince commanded a more 
noble or worthy subject (the earl of Leicester) ; not 
doubting by your obedience to my general, your con- 
cord in the camp, and your valor in the field, we shall 
shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of 
my God, of my kingdom, and of my people." The 
effect of such an oration as this may be imagined, and 
the spirit of the queen seemed at once infused into the 
hearts of all her soldiers. 

On Friday, July 19,- 1588, the terrible armada came 



178 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

in sight of England, and was announced along the 
coast by beacon fires. The ships of the Spaniards 
spread over the channel in the form of a crescent, 
whose horns were fully seven miles apart. The Eng- 
lish had one hundred ships of smaller size and eighty 
fire-ships with which to meet this formidable array. 
The fire-ships attacked the Spaniards in the night, and 
threw them into the utmost confusion. A great en- 
gagement followed, in which the wieldy little vessels 
of the English and the superior seamanship of their 
crews made sad havoc of the armada. There were 
several struggles, in which the armada experienced 
frightful damage from the English. A providential 
storm arose and drove the Spaniards upon the shores 
of Zealand. Many of their ships were taken, a great 
number beaten to pieces upon the rocks and sands, 
and only fifty vessels, with about six thousand men, 
survived to return to Philip, who anxiously awaited 
the news. 

"God's holy will be done," said the king of Spain. 
"I thought myself a match for the power of England, 
but I did not pretend to fight against the elements." 
Bentevoglio well said of this catastrophe : " Such was 
the fate of the memorable Armada of Spain, which 
threatened the demolition of the power of England. 
Eew enterprises were ever more deeply weighed, few 
preceded by more immense preparations, and none, 
perhaps, ever attended with a more unfortunate issue. 
How vain and fallacious are the best-concerted schemes 
of man! Thus often the Divine Providence, in the 
wisdom of his impenetrable decrees, has determined 
the fate of an enterprise quite contrary to the presump- 
tions of human foresight." 



THE DESTEUCTION OF THE SPANISH AEMADA. 179 

If Philip liad conquered England, his next step was 
to be the subjugation of the Netherlands, and the dis- 
memberment of the kingdom of France. If he had 
not failed in the first, he would doubtless have suc- 
ceeded in these other ambitious designs. From that 
time, however, the Spanish power, then the greatest on 
earth, began to wane. And it was of the utmost im- 
portance to civilization, as well as Protestantism, that 
it should. The consequences of the defeat of the at- 
tack on England by Spain may be best seen in the 
changes it ultimately produced in North America. Then 
nearly all of this magnificent domain belonged to 
Spain, which was, and still is, the most faithful daugh- 
ter of the Church of Home. But the power of the 
Spaniard in the New World began to fail, and now not 
one inch of North America belongs to the nation which 
sent out the expedition by which it was discovered. 
One by one the fertile provinces of North America 
have slipped from her grasp. England and the United 
States, the two leading powers of the world, the great 
Anglo-Saxon empire, now occupy nearly all of it. The 
battle for the possession of the New World was fought 
in the British Channel in 1588, and it was won by 
Protestantism. While Spanish power has been waning, 
the might of England has increased by leaps and 
bounds. More than half of North America is hers, 
and nearly all the rest is her daughter's — the territory 
of the United States. The continents of the South- 
Pacific are loyal colonies of the island-empire ; India 
is British, and calls the Lady of Windsor empress ; and 
numberless smaller possessions, on every continent and 
in every sea, wave the flag of England. She holds the 



180 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

gates of tlie Mediterranean, has a mortgage on Egypt, 
and controls the commerce of the globe. In short, 
Great Britain is the political umpire of Europe, Asia, 
and Africa. But who thinks of Spain? The once 
proud mistress of the world can hardly hold Cuba, and 
her name is not so much as mentioned in the great in- 
ternational questions of Europe. She is still faithful, 
the most faithful of all nations, to the Boman Catholic 
Church. In case cf the pope being compelled to re- 
move from Italy, a country becoming every year more 
unfavorable to his pretensions, because they know him 
so well, Spain would be the only country on earth that 
would welcome him to her shores. Spain has been 
faithful to the Holy See, and dearly has she paid for it. 
From being the strongest she has come to be the weak- 
est of all the great states of modern Europe. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
The Puritans. 

THE Church of England was cut off from Rome by 
Henry VIII., that he might be independent of 
the pope. But Henry did not reform the church. It 
was still Catholic, English Catholic, with Henry for its 
pope. A process of reformation was going on, however, 
and had been since long before Henry's day. The 
church had been trying to reform itself, and Henry 
found it convenient to take advantage of this move- 
ment to secure the ends of his own statecraft. Good 
seeds had been sown by Wickliffe and his Lollards in 
the fourteenth century. The evangelical work begun 
by these students of the Bible had never ceased en- 
tirely, though it was kept in abeyance. 

The Reformation' in England may be said to have 
formally begun during the reign of Henry YIII., but it 
was not carried far enough to satisfy the more devout. 
Under Edward YI. more progress was made. During 
his reign John Knox preached in England, first as pas- 
tor at Berwick, and afterwards as chaplain of the king. 
The preaching of Knox was opposed by many, but good 
King Edward believed in the Scotch Reformer, and 
made him one of the royal chaplains. Knox was glad 
to be of all the use possible while an exile from his na- 
tive land, and availed himself of every opportunity to 
preach the gospel ; but he did not approve of Episco- 
16 181 



182 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

pal Church government, and when the king offered 
him the bishopric of Kochester, he declined it as an 
unscriptural office. Such preaching as that of John 
Knox could but encourage and strengthen those in the 
Church of England who favored a reformation in doc- 
trine, church government, and worship. There is no 
telling what might have been accomplished for Eng- 
land if Knox, and those who sympathized with him, 
had not been compelled to leave for the Continent on 
the untimely death of Edward VI. 

The accession of Mary to the throne was the signal 
for a general exodus of the evangelicals for the Conti- 
nent. It was exile or death ; death, indeed, it was to 
many during the mercifully short reign, five years, of 
this bloody queen. Many of these refugees settled in 
Frankfort, Germany. They called the ex-chaplain, 
John Knox, to be their minister. But there were two 
classes of these English refugees : one, like Knox, full 
of zeal for the reformation of the church, and the other, 
lukewarm in religion, and devoted to popish ceremo- 
nies and vestments. A contention between these par- 
ties over the form of worship, which was nothing more 
than a continuation of the struggle that had been go- 
ing on in England between the two Protestant parties 
there — High and Low Church — caused a rupture in the 
Frankfort congregation, and the removal to Geneva, 
Switzerland, of Knox and those who sympathized with 
him. This was but a type of the history of subsequent 
times. When Queen Mary died, in 1558, and Eliza- 
beth acceded to the crown of England, the exiles of all 
beliefs were free to return. They did so ; but only for 
contentions and discussions which have continued with 



THE PURITANS. 183 

more or less intensity through many phases clown to 
the present clay. 

The English Protestants who had lived in Geneva 
five years as pupils of Knox and Calvin, were greatly 
strengthened in their determination to carry forward 
the great Reform in England. Those five years in 
Geneva, if they did not create Puritanism, educated it 
and baptized it for the mighty struggles it was to wage. 
Many of the greatest historical philosophers of mod- 
ern times, speak of Geneva as the real cradle of Puri- 
tanism. 

That Elizabeth was no Low-church woman is man- 
ifest from the fact that she performed her devotions 
before a crucifix surrounded by lighted tapers, and 
bitterly opposed the marriage of the clergy. She had 
no taste for simplicity of worship, but rather for the 
splendid pomp of a highly ritualistic ceremonial. Eliz- 
abeth was also a consummate politician, and was 
afraid to go too far in divergence from Rome. Policy 
means compromise, ordinarily, and the Protestantism 
of Elizabeth was much of that character. * The Prayer 
Book called the " Second Prayer Book of Edward VI.,' 9 
which Knox had helped revise, she had re-revised, and 
much that was ritualistic restored to it. In the first 
year of her reign the Act of Supremacy and the Act of 
Uniformity were passed, requiring all to conform to 
the usages of the established religion. The evangelical 
party could not conscientiously obey. They protested, 
and were called Non-conformists and Puritans : Non- 
conformists because they would not conform to the 
state religion, and Puritans because they were for puri- 
fying the church, and led such lives. This latter name 



184 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

was put upon them in 1564, as a term of contempt, but 
their descendants wear it as a crown of glory. The 
same year in which the evangelicals were named Puri- 
tans, "advertisements" were issued by the bishops, by 
which it was ordained that, "All licenses for preaching 
granted out by the archbishops and bishops of within 
the province of Canterbury, bearing date before the 
first of March, 1564, be void and of none effect." Thus 
all preachers were silenced, and it was further ordered 
that, "Only such as shall be thought meet for the 
office " should receive fresh licenses. This was a very 
simple plan for expelling from the pulpits of the 
church all the Puritan ministers. 

The Puritan people, being thus deprived of their 
pastors, began holding meetings privately for worship. 
But they were broken up, and many concerned in them 
subjected to imprisonment. Such measures only in- 
creased the numbers of the dissenters, and, what was 
more important, caused them to look more carefully 
into the constitution of the Church of England, and to 
enquire whether it was not based upon principles fun- 
damentally unjust and unscripturaL This caused a re- 
jection of the doctrine of the Episcopacy, and the 
adoption of scriptural Presbyterianism in its place. 
Thomas Cartwright, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, 
unfolded a theory of ecclesiastical government in har- 
mony with that of the churches of Geneva and Scot- 
land. Of course a storm burst immediately over his 
head, and he was deprived of his professorship, as well 
as forbidden to preach. He found a refuge in Geneva, 
the home of the persecuted. In 1572 John Eield and 
Thomas Wilcox, two Puritan ministers, presented to 



THE PURITANS. 185 

the national legislature the famous "Admonition to 
Parliament for the Reformation of Church Discipline" 
They were committed to prison for their championship 
of truth, and Whitgift replied to their address, taking 
the ground that the New Testament laid down no form 
of church order, and that the government of the apos- 
tolic days cannot now be exercised. So the contro- 
versy went on. 

In 1575 Archbishop Parker died, and was succeeded 
by Grindal. He was mild in his treatment of the Pu- 
ritans, and refused to obey the queen's order to sup- 
press their meetings for worship. For this he was sus- 
pended from his office, and made a prisoner in his own 
house. Grindal died in 1583, and was followed in office 
by Whitgift. Here was the man at last, and he at 
once issued his famous articles : " (1), That all preach- 
ing, catechising, and praying in any private house, 
where any are present besides the family, be utterly 
extinguished ; (2), That none do preach, or catechise, 
except also he will read the whole service, and admin- 
ister the sacraments four times a year ; (3), That all 
preachers and others in ecclesiastical orders] do at all 
times wear the habits prescribed; (4), That none be 
admitted to preach unless he be ordained according to 
the manner of the Church of England ; (5), That none 
be admitted to preach unless he subscribe the follow- 
ing articles ; (a), That the queen hath, and ought to 
have, the sovereignty and rule over all manner of per- 
sons born within her dominions, of what condition so- 
ever they be ; and, that none other power or potentate 
hath, or ought to have, any power, ecclesiastical, or 
civil, within her realms or dominions ; (•&), That the 



186 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Book of Common Prayer, and of ordering bishops, 
priests and deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary 
to the word of God, but may be lawfully used, and 
that he himself will use the same, and none other, in 
public prayer, and in the administration of the sacra- 
ments ; (c), That he alloweth the Book of Articles 
agreed upon in the convocation holden in London in 
1562, and set forth by her majesty's authority, and he- 
believe all the articles therein contained to be agree- 
able to the word of God." 

Armed with this tyrannical order, the archbishop 
had hundreds of ministers expelled from their pulpits, 
and treated with the utmost harshness and cruelty. 
The privy council remonstrated with Whitgift, but, like 
Israel of old, to whom the Lord said, " Thou art obsti- 
nate, and thy neck is like an iron sinew, and thy brow 
brass," he was inflexible, and throughout the kingdom 
his agents, by fine, imprisonment, and the rack, carried 
out the cruel mandates of their master. At one time 
fully a third of the beneficed clergy were suspended, 
which meant poverty and want, if nothing more. For 
twenty years this tyrant guided the affairs of the 
Church of England, and nothing but the unfailing 
memory of heaven could tell the measure of the suffer- 
ings caused by his cruel measures. One of the most 
outrageous acts of that period was the promulgation of 
an order that all persons over sixteen years of age who 
refused to attend the established churches should be 
banished from the realm, and that if they returned, 
they should suffer death. 

Queen Elizabeth died March 24, 1603, and James 
VI. of Scotland succeeded her on the throne of Eng- 



THE PUEITANS. 187 

land. The Puritans hoped for much from the coming 
of James from Presbyterian Scotland ; but James was 
no Presbyterian, nor Puritan, though he had dispar- 
aged the Church of England, declaring that, " Its ser- 
vice was but an evil-said mass in English, wanting no- 
thing but the liftings." Archbishop Whitgift gained 
possession of the king's heart, which was no great thing 
to possess, and the Puritans petitioned for clemency in 
vain. In a conference called at Hampton Court, the 
churchmen and the Puritans were allowed to present 
their respective causes. After the king had listened to 
the representations of the Puritans, he told them he 
would expect from them humble obedience, and added, 
" If this be all your party have to say, I will make 
them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or 
else do worse." 

Archbishop Whitgift died in 1604, but Bancroft, who 
followed him, was no kinder than his predecessor, and 
the work of persecution went on. Many emigrated to 
Holland, settling in various cities. In 1620, some of 
these refugees, who acquired the name "pilgrims" by 
their migrations, gained permission of the authorities 
in England to establish a colony in America. They 
landed December 22, 1620, and founded the Plymouth 
colony, naming their settlement Plymouth for the 
port from which they had sailed. This was the be- 
ginning of that community now composed of several 
States, known collectively as New England, which have 
exercised such great influence in the affairs of the 
American nation. God had prepared these wonder- 
ful people for the work he had for them to do in the 
western wilds, and after centuries of training they 



188 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

were driven forth. They never would have gone with- 
out compulsion by the cruel hands of an oppressive 
church and state in England. Those who came to 
America, though liable to much criticism for intoler- 
ance and fanaticism, have, on the whole, exercised a 
very beneficent influence. Those who remained in 
England had a no less important task to accomplish 
at home. 

Matters were ripening in England for a great crisis, 
and a black cloud of revolution was rising over the 
sky. James YI. of Scotland, who was James I. of 
England, died in 1625. Two celebrated figures now 
appeared on the field of English politics, Charles I. 
the king, and Laud, first bishop of London, and after- 
wards archbishop of Canterbury. The arch-episcopate 
of York is called the "primacy of England," and that 
of Canterbury the "primacy of all England," and the 
real ruler of the British church was the occupant of 
the See of Canterbury. Hitherto, the leaders of both 
parties had been Calvinistic in doctrine. "Whitgift was 
a High Calvinist, and so was King James I., who 
prided himself upon being a theologian. Now, how- 
ever, a great change was observed. Arminianism 
rapidly took the place of the strong doctrines hitherto 
held by the clergy. The doctrines as well as the 
usages of the Puritans became the object of attack. 
Laud now proceeded to excel all his predecessors in 
fiery zeal and cruelty. The whole church seemed to 
be going headlong towards Borne, while the Puritans 
were persecuted with incredible severity. Thousands 
fled to Holland and America, but those who remained 
in England were not overwhelmed by the rigorous 



THE PURITANS. 189 

measures used against them. Laud and his assistants, 
and Charles I. and his advisers, were mi consciously 
preparing a mine which was soon to explode and blow 
the government to fragments. Great disaffection was 
arising; a mighty spirit of revolt against the arbi- 
trary rule of the king and the despotism of the bishops. 
The nation was aroused. Human nature could bear 
no more, and the great revolution followed which 
brought down the absolute monarchy and the Angli- 
can Church together. The people were maddened to 
desperation, and not only overthrew the oppressive civil 
government and hierarchy, but proceeded to behead 
their unfortunate king. Charles I. paid the penalty of 
his own faults and the crimes of his predecessors for 
generations, when his head fell at Whitehall, London, 
January 30, 1649. 

The events of those stormy times naturally group 
themselves about the gigantic personality of a man 
who was. the greatest of all Puritans, if not of all Eng- 
lishmen. The next chapter in these sketches of the 
providence. of God in the world's history will be con- 
cerned with Oliver Cromwell, the "uncrowned king." 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

Oliver Cromwell. 

" T I 1HE Lord cause his face to shine upon you, and 
JL comfort you in all your adversities, and enable 
you to do great things for the glory of your Most High 
God, and to be a relief unto his people. My dear son, 
I leave my heart with thee. A good night !" These 
■were the words of Elizabeth Steward to her son, Oli- 
ver Cromwell, as she lay dying at ninety years, in 
Whitehall, London. It need hardly be said she was a 
noble woman and one of strong character. Such 
words and such a man could come from no other. 
His father, Robert Cromwell, was the second son of 
Sir Henry Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook, who was sur- 
named, for his munificence, The Golden Knight. . 

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the British com- 
monwealth, was born at Huntingdon, April 25, 1589. 
He studied in a grammar school of his native town, 
under a rigid and pious instructor, Dr. Thomas Beard. 
He afterwards spent one year at Cambridge as a stu- 
dent, but on the death of his father he left the univer- 
sity and devoted himself to the study of law in London. 
In 1620, on the 22nd of August, he married Elizabeth 
Bourchier, of Eelsted, Essex, a lady whose prudence 
and gentle character sweetened the life of the great 
soldier and statesman to its close. After his marriage 
lie returned to Huntingdon, and settled down to a 

190 




CROMWELL. 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 191 

farmer's pursuits on his patrimonial estate. Here 
lived Oliver Cromwell, on the soil, during ten years, 
with his flocks and herds, growing and ripening for 
the eventful career which Providence was preparing 
for him. It was during this period that his life took 
on that strong religious cast which ever afterwards 
marked it in all public and private relations. His 
soul struggled through convulsive upheavals of con- 
flicting emotions, until he found peace in believing. 
His house was henceforth a rendezvous for the devout, 
and he became thoroughly enlisted in the trials and 
aspirations of the Puritans. 

He took his seat in Parliament March 17, 1628, as a 
member for Huntingdon. The following year he made 
his first recorded speech, in which he attacked the 
government for appointing to important churches 
clergymen who were unprotestant in their beliefs and 
practices. He called the attention of Parliament to 
the fact that " Doctor Alablaster had preached flat 
popery at Paul's Cross," and had been encouraged 
therein by his bishop, while another minister, " Main- 
waring, so justly censured by this house for his ser- 
mons, was by the same bishop's means preferred to a 
rich living." "If these," said Cromwell, "are the 
steps to church preferment, what are we to expect ?" 
On these sentences Mr. Hume remarks : " It is amus- 
ing to observe the first words of this fanatical hypo- 
crite, corresponding exactly to his character." This is 
all we could expect of the infidel historian. But 
Macaulay spoke of these as the utterances of "the im- 
perial voice," which afterwards " arrested the sails of 
Libyan pirates and the persecuting fires of Rome." 



192 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTORY. 

Events were moving forward in England, and Crom- 
well was moving with. them. Charles I. had levied, 
without the consent of Parliament, a tax on the people, 
called "ship money," to raise funds for adding vessels 
to the royal navy. John Hampden, a first cousin of 
Cromwell, refused to pay it, and though he was not 
sustained in his appeal to the courts, the argument 
made in defence of his position produced a profound 
impression throughout the realm, and caused every 
man who paid this tax to feel himself personally 
wronged by the king. Scotland was also boiling over 
an attempt to enforce Episcopacy and the prayer-book 
upon the people. Poverty and suffering among the 
laboring classes in England added to the dissatisfac- 
tion, for men are seldom loyal when they are hungry. 
The government under the king was tyrannical, and 
unheedful of the mutterings of revolution which arose 
from various quarters. Cromwell was a strong aspi- 
rant for liberty. His sturdy independence was illus- 
trated by his vigorous opposition to royal interference 
in the drainage of the Bedford fens which had been 
going forward. His action in this matter gained for 
him the sobriquet of the " Lord of the Fens." A great 
crisis was approaching, and the man for the crisis was 
at hand. In 1642 war broke out between the king and 
Parliament. Cromwell was. the people's man. He 
raised a company of volunteers, partly at his own ex- 
pense, and threw his whole being into the contest. 
His idea was that their strength lay rather in the 
righteousness of their cause than in the force of arms, 
and that his soldiers must be inspired by the enthusi- 
asm of faith, as well as by military training. He 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 193 

gathered around himself a thousand kindred spirits, 
who prayed, read the Scriptures, and entered battle 
singing psalms. These men were laughed at for a 
time, but only a short time, for they showed them- 
selves invincible. Cromwell's " Ironsides " were never 
beaten. Faith and common sense were powerfully 
blended in their character, for they " trusted God and 
kept their powder dry." During the memorable strug- 
gle between the " Boundheads," as the Puritan party 
were derisively named, on account of their closely-cut 
hair, and the Cavaliers or Eoyalists, Cromwell devel- 
oped marvellous talents as a military chieftain, and 
was put in command of the insurgent army. He de- 
feated the royal forces on the famous fields of Marston 
Moor (July 2, 1644), Naseby (June 14, 1645), and 
Preston (August 17, 1648). At last the cause of the 
king was overthrown, and the Puritans were in posses- 
sion of England. A Roundhead high court of justice 
tried King Charles I. and sent him to execution. 
Cromwell was a member of this court, and was one of 
those who signed the death-warrant of their former 
sovereign. Charles ended his life on a scaffold in the 
streets of London, in front of his own palace of White- 
hall, January 30, 1649. In August, the same year, 
Cromwell was made Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and by 
a strong hand he put down all opposition. The 
Scotch, deceived by the perfidy of " Prince Charlie," 
who had signed the " covenant," and would have 
signed anything else, if expedient, rallied around the 
standard of this unprincipled son of the dead king. 
This led to the recall of Cromwell to take charge of the 
army as captain-general of all the forces of the com- 
17 



194 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

monwealth. He soon conquered the opposition, and, 
returning victorious to London, took up Iris residence 
at Hampton Court. The miserable remnant of the 
national legislature, appropriately called the " Rump 
Parliament/' Cromwell dissolved, and formed a Coun- 
cil of State. He afterwards summoned the "Little 
Parliament," which lasted from July 4 to December 
12, 1653. On the 16th of December Cromwell was 
proclaimed Lord-protector, and solemnly installed in 
"Westminster Hall. 

The Puritan farmer had now become the sovereign, 
almost dictator, of England, and the concerns of a na- 
tion passing through the throes of revolution devolved 
upon him. Great Britain was never better ruled than 
under Cromwell. He maintained peace between the 
divided ranks of the Puritans, who were now separated 
into the Presbyterians and Independents; kept the 
royalists in subjection, and led the country forward in 
a career of prosperity. The courts of Europe sent 
their congratulations to the new sovereign, and it was 
not long before Cromwell made them feel his power. 
He was supreme in England. A Parliament which he 
had summoned took into consideration the question as 
to whether or not they should approve of the new 
government. Cromwell thundered at them, "I told 
you that you were a 'free Parliament,' but I thought 
it was understood withal that I was the protector and 
the authority that called you!" Some of the members 
withdrew, but the remainder bowed to the imperial 
will. 

Cromwell undertook, and carried out successfully, a 
vigorous foreign policy. His aim was to unite the 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 195 

Protestant governments of Europe against popery. He 
did so, and the name of Cromwell kept the Roman See 
in wholesome fear. When the news came to him of 
the frightful persecutions of the Waldenses, it is said 
he shed tears. He required the Duke of Savoy and 
Louis XIV. to stop the horrid slaughter at once, threat- 
ening invasion if they refused. They desisted, and 
Cromwell sent from his own funds, and what he had 
collected for the purpose, a great sum of money, to re- 
lieve the distress of these poor saints of the Alps. The 
British navy, under Blake, roamed the seas, and ex- 
acted justice from all who had made depredations upon 
English interests. The Mediterranean, which had been 
overrun with pirates, was entirely cleared of them, and 
made safe for commerce. "By such means as these," 
said Cromwell, "we shall make the name of English- 
man as great as that of Roman was in Home's most 
palmy days." 

Cromwell's surroundings were partisan and narrow, 
but he was superior to them. He showed tolerance 
towards all sects, and proclaimed that God was alone 
Lord of the conscience. He fostered learning, though 
his party looked upon it as almost a sin. Even the 
outcast Jews he wished to have admitted to the rights 
of citizenship. He encouraged the useful arts, and 
greatly promoted the advancement of the best interests 
of the people. The laws were unflinchingly and im- 
partially administered. The protector was quick to 
discover merit, and to reward and encourage it, whether 
in the high or the low. 

Throughout Europe Cromwell's government was re- 
spected, and his flag floated triumphant over all seas ; 



196 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

but the burden was too heavy even for such shoulders, 
and the great constitution began to fail. The death of 
a little daughter, dearly beloved, told visibly upon his 
health. A letter from a contemporary to "Winthrop, 
governor of Connecticut, gives a description of his ap- 
pearance and character: "His body was well built, 
compact and strong ; his stature under six feet (I be- 
lieve about two inches) ; his head so shaped that you 
might see in it a storehouse and shop both of a vast 
treasury of natural parts ; his temper was exceedingly 
fiery, as I have known, but the flame of it kept down 
for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral en- 
dowments he had. He was naturally compassionate 
towards objects in distress, even to an effeminate mea- 
sure, though God had made him a heart wherein was 
left little room for any fear, but what was due to him- 
self, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he 
exceed in tenderness towards sufferers. A larger soul, 
I think, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his 
was." 

The use which men make of power is one of the best 
tests of character. Judged by this rule, Cromwell 
stands among the highest. "When exalted to the dic- 
tatorship of a great nation, he still maintained his 
former simple and religious habits. When offered the 
title of "king" by Parliament, he firmly declined it, 
because he did not consider the country ripe for it, 
though it is well known that he coveted the honor. 

The great protector died on Friday, the 3rd of Sep- 
tember, 1658, in the midst of a great tempest which 
swept over England, as if nature itself sympathized 
with the passage of the mighty spirit. The people of 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 197 

the island bemoaned him, and he was laid to rest in 
"Westminster Abbey in the midst of kings, with such 
funeral honors as London had never seen before. 

Kichard Cromwell, son of the lordly Oliver, suc- 
ceeded to the protectorate, but only for a brief period. 
In less than two years Charles II. ascended the throne, 
and all was changed at once. From its resting place 
in the mausoleum of the nation's heroes the body of 
Cromwell was exhumed, by order of the new king, then 
beheaded, and burned at Tyburn. From that time 
forward none dared speak well of Cromwell. Histo- 
rians termed him " regicide," "usurper," "tyrant," 
"fanatic," "bigot," "hypocrite." Few, if any, good 
men have ever been so villified. But while he lived 
he said, "I know God has been bove all ill-reports, 
and will in his own time vindicate me." This prophecy 
has been fulfilled, and in the nineteenth century the 
world is beginning to do him justice. The illustrious 
John Milton, Cromwell's secretary, who knew him 
through and through, said, "In speaking of a man so 
great and who has deserved so signally of this com- 
monwealth, I shall have done nothing if I merely ac- 
quit him of having committed any crime, especially 
since it concerns not only the commonwealth, but my- 
self individually, as one so closely conjoined in the 
same infamy, to show to all nations and ages, as far as 
I can, the supreme excellence of his character, and his 
supreme worthiness of all praise." 

The old sexton of the cemetery at Dumfries, in 
which Robert Burns is buried, said of that poet when 
he died, "The world will not know him till he has 
been dead a hundred years." But it was two hundred 



198 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

years before England knew Cromwell. From despising 
him the nation and the world have come to love him, 
and to glory in his virtues. To Thomas Carlyle, a man 
brave enough for anything, is largely due the revolu- 
tion in popular sentiment towards the great Puritan. 
He published his speeches and letters with a few com- 
ments, and thus set the man himself before the world. 
This is all that was needed to make him a hero. 

"Was the work of those stormy days all wasted, and 
the blood of its martyrs shed in vain because royalty 
was restored? No; the form of monarchy was rein- 
stated, but the spirit of it was never afterwards tole- 
rated. The "divine right of kings" went down for 
England forever when the head of Charles I. fell at 
Whitehall. The people had found out they could remove 
a king or make one ; in other words, that they them- 
selves were sovereign and the crowned man their ser- 
vant. The immortal lesson of the English revolution 
was that the people are the masters. That lesson will 
remain, since Calvin has shown the world such a super- 
nal vision of God, and taught men that they are his 
subjects, absolutely amenable to his laws. Earthly 
sovereigns had lost much of their mysterious sacrecl- 
ness. Hereafter, when a king transgressed the laws of 
God, he was to be dealt with as a man. Calvin had 
set in motion the forces of the English revolution in 
his church and lecture-room in Geneva a hundred 
years before. Indeed, the mighty upheaval of Crom- 
well's time was but one surge of the advancing tide 
which shall at last sweep over all lands. 

The abiding quality of the results of the revolution 
were made manifest afterwards when James II. as- 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 199 

sumed despotic airs, and proved unworthy to govern. 
He was driven from power by an indignant people, 
and through their representatives they elected "William 
and Mary to the throne. This was a glorious triumph 
of popular sovereignty. From that time England has 
been virtually a republic. The people are the real 
rulers, and would not now tolerate a vicious or despotic 
king. 

Those twenty-eight years from the accession of 
Charles II., in 1660, to the flight of James II., in 1688, 
were among the most eventful in English history. The 
people never submitted quietly to the galling yoke laid 
upon them by Charles II. and James II. The strug- 
gles of those twenty-eight years are among the most 
glorious in the annals of the world. They were carried 
on mainly in Scotland. The country which gave the 
Stuarts to the throne of the two kingdoms was going, 
finally, to be the main cause of driving them from it 
forever. The men who are to be most thanked for this 
great triumph were the Covenanters of Scotland. A 
sketch of their trials and achievements will constitute 
the following chapter. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

The Covenantees. 

" /^HBIST oue King and Covenant " were the words 
V_-^ inscribed on the blue banner which the Cove- 
nanters bore during their struggles for truth and lib- 
erty in Scotland. 

These heroic people derived their name from the 
covenants which they subscribed and for which they 
contended. There were two principal covenants which 
figured prominently in the religious history of Scotland. 
The first one was drawn up at the request of King 
James VI., by his chaplain, John Craig. It was first 
called " The King's Confession," because it received the 
royal signature. It was afterwards known as "The 
National Covenant, or the Confession of Faith." The 
date of the king's subscription was 1580 ; the year fol- 
lowing it was signed by multitudes of all ranks. The 
signers of this document pledged themselves to main- 
tain the Reformed or Presbyterian religion, and the 
majesty of the king, against all machinations of papists 
and prelates. 

"When James VI. of Scotland became James I. of 
England he endeavored to bring the two kingdoms into 
uniformity of religion. He was never a Presbyterian 
at heart, and strove for the establishment of Episco- 
pacy in Scotland. He and his descendants, Charles I., 
Charles II. , and James II., were persistent in their at- 

200 



THE COVENANTERS. 201 

tempts to force Episcopacy upon the 'Scotch. The 
Scotch were as persistent in resisting their efforts, and, 
•under the name of Covenanters, the great majority of 
the people contended for the Presbyterian faith as it 
had been elaborated and established in Scotland by 
John Knox and his associates in their day. The 
Covenanters endured fiery trials for many years, but 
at last triumphed on the accession of "William and Mary 
to the throne in 1688. 

The National Covenant was, in 1581, annexed to the 
Confession of Faith, and was well known, of course, 
to all the Scottish people as a magna charta of their 
religious liberties. 

"When Charles I. came to the throne, he was more 
zealous for Episcopacy than his father had been, and 
less prudent. One of the first acts of his reign was to 
make a proclamation for the strict observance of Epis- 
copal forms in Scotland. Archbishop Laud was the 
power behind the throne in these proceedings, but he 
and the king had undertaken an impossibility — the 
forcing upon Scotland a religion which the people's 
consciences did not approve. In 1633 the king came 
to Edinburgh to give the influence of his personal pre- 
sence to the consummation of his scheme. In 1635 
diocesan courts were erected throughout Scotland to 
enforce the royal mandates. In 1636 the people were 
ordered to adopt Laud's book of public worship, and 
the next year all ministers were outlawed who refused 
to conform to Episcopal usages. This settled the mat- 
ter ; the outraged people could bear no more, and 
there was a general uprising throughout the country 
against the innovations £fom England. On Sunday, 



202 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

July 23, 1637, the Dean of Edinburgh, acting under 
orders from London, attempted to read the English 
Liturgy in John Knox's old church, St. Giles' Cathe- 
dral, Edinburgh.' Jennie Geddes hurled her stool at 
the head of the unfortunate man, who at once took to 
flight from the place, the people running after him, 
crying, "A pope ! a pope ! Antichrist ! The sword of 
the Lord and of Gideon !" This was the beginning of 
the end of Episcopacy in Scotland ; but it was only the 
beginning. The end was far away. But the influences 
set working that year in Scotland never subsided until 
the land w T as made entirely free. The importance of 
the events of that period may be learned from the 
words of Dean Stanley, himself an English churchman, 
who said : " The stool" (now in the museum of Edin- 
burgh,) "which was on that occasion flung at the head 
of the Dean of Edinburgh, extinguished the English 
Liturgy in Scotland for the seventeenth century, and, 
to a great extent, for the nineteenth, and gave to the 
civil war in England an impulse which only ended in 
the overthrow of the church and monarchy." These 
arbitrary acts of Charles I., which were the consumma- 
tion of his oppression, cost him his throne and his 
head, for the forcible introduction of the Book of 
Canons and of Common Prayer, at the instance of 
Laud, occasioned the revolution which changed the 
whole face of the nation. 

Now the old National Covenant came to the front as 
the platform of the great contention. The document 
drawn up by Craig, and signed by King James in 1580, 
and called " The King's Confession," which was in the 
homes .of all the people, was brought out. Alexander 



THE COVENANTERS. 203 

Henderson, second only to Knox in Scottish history, 
drew up a " bond," and Johnston of Warriston " a legal 
warrant," which were attached to the Covenant, adapt- 
ing the ancient document to the wants of the times. 
Henderson preached in old Greyfriar's Church a power- 
ful sermon, suited to the occasion, and then, on the 
tombstones of the church-yard, the Covenant was 
signed by great numbers of common people and no- 
bles, as well as distinguished divines. Copies were 
sent all over the land, and subscribed by thousands of 
the population. Some of these historic documents 
are still preserved in Edinburgh. Not a few of the 
people pricked blood from their arms to write their 
names, in token that they were ready, if necessary, to 
die for the religion of their fathers. Very many of 
them did pay the penalty of their lives for their devo- 
tion to the truth of God. 

In November of that year, 1638, the General Assem- 
bly convened, and, in defiance of the order of the king's 
commissioner that they should dissolve, continued their 
sessions, and declared for Presbyterianism, Thus was 
Presbyterianism firmly established in Scotland. Buckle 
and other historians denounce the leaders of the Scot- 
tish Church at that time for their rigid Calvinism and 
severe morality, but the times were not such as to ad- 
mit of anything else, either in doctrine or government. 
We have no reason to complain, because, but for these 
" hard" Covenanters, the Eeformation would have been 
a failure, both in Scotland and England. 

Charles I. was executed in England in 1649, and the 
Puritans ruled England. The Scotch, however, were 
Icyal to the monarchy, and gave an asylum to Prince 



204 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

Charles, who afterwards became Charles II. during 
a part of his exile. He, like his father and grand- 
father, was faithless, and while a wanderer in Scotland 
signed the National Covenant, pledging himself for the 
maintenance of Presbyterianisni in that realm, only to 
break his oath when he was placed on the throne in 
1660. He proceeded at once to exterminate Presby- 
terianism from Scotland, by legislative enactments, 
royal proclamation, and the sword. All Presbyterian 
General Assemblies, Synods and Presbyteries were for- 
bidden to meet, nor might any one preach the gospel, 
or even teach, without the consent of the bishops who 
were consecrated in London and sent up to establish 
Episcopacy again in Scotland. The Marquis of Argyle, 
James Guthrie, and Johnston of Warriston were igno- 
miniously put to death. Four hundred ministers were 
driven from their pulpits and homes, and all who re- 
fused to attend Episcopal services were severely dealt 
with. The scenes which were enacted throughout 
Scotland during those times were most dreadful, yet 
afforded examples of heroism as noble as any to be 
found in history. 

The second Covenant, called "The Solemn League 
and Covenant," was drawn up by Alexander Hender- 
son, in connection with English commissioners at Ed- 
inburgh. It was adopted by the Scottish General 
Assembly, by the celebrated Westminster Assembly in 
London, which prepared the Westminster Confession 
of Faith, and by the Parliaments of the two kingdoms. 
This was the great declaration of principles under 
which the Covenanters fought during the memorable 
twenty-eight years from the accession of Charles II. to 



THE COVENANTERS. 205 

the time when the enthronement of William and Mary- 
gave them the blessings they had so long contended 
for. 

Ifc was not to be expected that the Scotch would 
meekly bow to the will of the perjured king when he 
commanded them to give up what they prized more 
dearly than life itself. It required the exercise of 
force and the infliction of the severest penalties to sup- 
press Presbyterian worship. It was made a crime 
punishable with death to hold Presbyterian worship. 
The persecuted could only gather in the caves or wild 
glens, or under cover of the mist, to sing their simple 
psalms and hear the gospel preached. These meet- 
ings, which were forbidden by law, were called " con- 
venticles," arid bodies of troops scoured the country to 
punish all who attended them. Sir James Turner and 
Graham of Claverhouse were samples of the kind of 
instruments employed by the king to crush the Cove- 
nanters. These cruel men, attended by troops of sol- 
diers, swept up and down the land persecuting the 
innocent victims of ecclesiastical tyranny. They were 
resisted, naturally enough, from time to time, by the 
brave people whom they oppressed. There was a ris- 
ing in Galloway in 1666, which terminated in the de- 
feat of the Covenanters among the Pentland Hills, near 
Edinburgh. Another battle took place at Drumclog, 
where Claverhouse was defeated. But in a memorable 
conflict at Bothwell Bridge the blue banner of the Cov- 
enant was laid low in the dust. In 1680, at Sanquhar, 
a little village among the hills of Dumfriesshire, a de- 
claration was published, denouncing Charles II. as a 
tyrant and perjurer whom the people were no longer 
18 



206 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

bound to own. Richard Cameron, who drew up this 
bold paper, gathered a few followers about himself. 
These were called Caraeronians, or, more strictly, Re- 
formed Presbyterians. At Airdmoss the Cameronians 
were defeated by the royal troops, and Cameron him- 
self killed. The year preceding, Archbishop Sharp, of 
St. Andrews, who had been a Presbyterian minister, 
but was then a most relentless persecutor, was attacked 
by some of the people, maddened by oppression, and 
visited with a merited doom. 

When James II. became king at the death of Charles 
II., the persecutions were not relaxed, but rather in- 
tensified. He had figured among the most hated op- 
pressors of the Covenanters in Scotland under the title 
of the Duke of York. In a work like this it is impos- 
sible to give the details of the barbarous measures 
which were adopted to force Episcopacy upon the 
Scottish people Greater cruelties were never perpe- 
trated by any nation Savages could have done »no 
more It is stated by the latest authorities, and those 
by no means prejudiced in favor of the Covenanters, 
that during those terrible times fully 18,000 persons 
were put to death by the stake, the tide, the sword, 
dagger and bullet, for their devotion to the great prin- 
ciple of liberty to worship God according to their own 
consciences. If any harsh criticisms are offered by 
those who differ from the Covenanters for their unbend- 
ing sternness, all should be set at rest by a single state- 
ment, which can be fully substantiated, that when de- 
liverance came, and their cause triumphed by the re- 
volution which placed the Calvinist of Holland on the 
British throne, no one of the Covenanters turned upon 



THE COVENANTERS. 207 

their former persecutors for vengeance. Presbyterian- 
ism was again established by law, and universal tolera- 
tion of religious opinions and worship granted to all 
creeds. 

All honor to the Covenanters ! They won the vic- 
tory at last, but the conquest of their enemies was no 
more marked and glorious than the complete subjuga- 
tion of the natural impulses of the human heart to take 
revenge for injuries. Well did they then illustrate the 
principles of their Lord, who said, "Love your ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you 
and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven." 

This was the end of the persecutions in Scotland. 
They had brought forth fine gold. God had purified 
and trained his people in the furnace of affliction, and 
now the Covenanters were to be sent out with the 
Huguenots and the Puritans to bless the wide, wide 
world. At this latter end of the nineteenth century 
the doctrines and government of the Covenanters are 
maintained, and their Confession of Faith and Cate- 
chisms taught in every part of the earth where the 
English language is spoken. 



CHAPTER XX. 
John Wesley and the Methodists. 

RELIGION in England had fallen to a very low 
state in the middle of the eighteenth century. 
The clergy were worldly, the laity immoral, and spirit- 
uality had given place to formalism in nearly all the 
churches. Card-playing and intemperance were not- 
uncommon among ministers of the Established Church, 
and bold infidelity lifted its voice unrebuked against 
all truth and godliness throughout the land. But God 
was preparing a protest against the prevalent wicked- 
ness, a mighty protest that- was going to recall the 
church from the intoxication of worldliness, and rescue 
thousands from an awful doom. 

Methodism was God's protest against the formalism 
of the church and the degradation of society in Eng- 
land in the eighteenth centuiw. It emphasized the 
heinousness of sin, the utter, eternal ruin of those 
who die impenitent, and the necessity of regeneration. 
Conversion was the word about which the great struggle 
was waged. It was not enough for men to be mem- 
bers of the church, and partake of the sacraments; 
they must be converted, born of the Holy Ghost, and 
"bring forth fruits meet for repentance." Though the 
Methodists may have pressed the doctrine of assurance 
too far, and though they attached undue value to acts 
of the human will, in the main they were right, and 

208 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS. 209 

did preach the gospel as it has seldom been preached 
in the world, before or since. No great religious move- 
ment was ever free from crudities and imperfections, 
especially in the throes of its birth; but yet, in the 
midst of it all, God's voice is heard calling men to re- 
pentance. Methodism in its origin and progress is one 
of the greatest religious movements of any age, and 
without fear of successful contradiction it may be de- 
clared to be one of the richest benefactions God ever 
bestowed upon the human race; for not only was the 
reaction from formalism and worldliness so prevalent 
in the eighteenth century largely due to its influence, 
but Methodism has in the short period of its existence 
gathered together a splendid host of twenty-three mil- 
lions of adherents, who are working side by side in 
Christian fellowship with the other denominations for 
the salvation of men. "We hail Methodism as a great 
voice of God in history. It was born in a revival, has 
lived in a revival, and has done much to revive the whole 
church of God during its brief, but brilliant, career. 

Methodism was born in the University of Oxford, 
England, and John Wesley was its father. It began 
in the "Holy Club," as a small body of devout students 
were called, who organized themselves for Christian 
work and worship. The name " Holy Club " was given 
in derision by the worldly, as was also the now uni- 
versally accepted cognomen, " Methodists." John and 
Charles "Wesley and their friends were so "methodical" 
in their work and worship as to excite the hostile criti- 
cism of their fellow-students, who felt, perhaps, an im- 
plied rebuke to their own worldliness in the conduct 
of these pious young men, so different from themselves. 



210 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

John Wesley was the fifteenth child of his mother, 
who had altogether nineteen children. Charles was a 
younger brother. Mrs. Wesley was herself one of a 
family of twenty-five children. She was a very strong 
character, and devoted to the service of God. Mr. Sam- 
uel Wesley, her husband, was a rector of the Church 
of England at Epworth, and his income being alto- 
gether disproportionate to the size of his family, he 
was always in debt. By the invaluable assistance of 
his wife, Susannah, he managed to struggle on and live 
in some comfort. John was born at Epworth, June 23, 
1703 ; Charles at the same place, December 18, 1708. 
Their mother was their teacher, and well did she per- 
form her work, not only imparting to them the know- 
ledge that is considered necessary to constitute an 
education, but also the high principles and correct 
habits which are the very substance of character. At 
the age of ten John was admitted to the Charterhouse 
school in London. He entered Christ's Church Col- 
lege, Oxford, seven years later ; was ordained in 1725 ; 
elected fellow of Lincoln College the year following, and 
took his degree of A. M. in 1727. He then served his 
father as curate for two years, after which he returned to 
Oxford to fulfil his duties as fellow. It was during the 
year of his return to the university, 1729, that the " Holy 
Club " was formed, and Methodism began its career. 
John had already passed through some religious vicis- 
situdes. When he went to the Charterhouse school he 
was devout, but he came away, as he said, " a sinner." 
In the year of his ordination he began to grope after 
better things, deriving benefit from the writings of 
Thomas a Kempis and Jeremy Taylor. He now, dur- 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS. 211 

ing his fellowship at Oxford, led a very abstemious 
life, giving himself to the study of the Scriptures and 
to the performance of religious duties. His aim was 
to secure salvation by keeping the law of God. He 
and his companions pinched themselves in their living 
to have money for alms-giving, attended -weekly com- 
munion, and observed with the greatest strictness the 
forms of religion. They were then what are called 
"high churchmen." It seems very strange that the 
father of Methodism could ever have been a member 
of that party in religion which is considered the ex- 
treme opposite of the great revival church cf later times. 
This high-churchism was but a phase or stage of the life 
that was working its way in Wesley and his friends. 
They were feeling after a mighty truth which they 
were to emphasize as it had never been emphasized 
before, and were to make it a test of religion among 
all evangelical Christians ; that truth was the necessity 
of " conversion," personal experience of the grace of 
God. 

"While John Wesley was laboring in his fellowship 
at Oxford, a call was issued from the Established 
Church for a clergyman "inured to contempt of the 
ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily austeri- 
ties, and to serious thoughts," to go to Georgia as a 
missionary to the colonists and Indians. The young 
zealot offered himself for the work, and was accepted. 
Charles accompanied him to America, and they entered 
upon their mission in 1736, remaining in the colony of 
Georgia two years. The work was not successful, John 
Wesley himself declaring that it was a failure. His 
high church notions and his rigid enforcement of the 



212 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

regulations of the prayer-book, especially in the matter 
of the communion, were resented by the colonists, and 
lie left Georgia with several indictments pending 
against him for alleged infraction of ecclesiastical 
canons. These charges were no donbt made in a ma- 
licious spirit, and in no way affected his moral stand- 
ing or character. This alleged " failure " was a means 
of great good to "Wesley. Failures are a part of God's 
discipline for his children, to prepare them for greater 
usefulness. It is probable that this was one of the 
most beneficial experiences of John Wesley's life. 
Not long after his return to England he attended a 
Moravian service in Aldersgate street, London. The 
minister read Martin Luther's preface to a commentary 
on the Epistle to the Romans. Hearing that preface 
read was, he declared, the means of his conversion. 
" I felt," he said, "my heart strangely warmed. I felt 
I did trust in Christ alone for salvation, and an assur- 
ance was given me that he had taken away my sins," 
Whether he had been long a true follower of Christ, 
and at this time only received a greater measure of 
divine blessing, or whether he was really first converted 
then, it would be difficult to decide, but from that 
period his life had a new tone. He began to preach 
with great power the gospel of salvation from sin and 
hell. Feeling indebted to the Moravians, he associ- 
ated himself with them, and made a journey to Ger- 
many to learn more of their usages. On his return he 
joined himself to a Moravian congregation in Fetter 
Lane, London, and drew up for them a set of rules. 
The Established churches were closed against him, 
and so, on the advice of his friend George Whitefield, 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS. 213 

lie betook himself to preaching in the open air, though 
at first he was very unwilling to take so bold a step, 
considering it " almost a sin." He left the Fetter Lane 
Moravians because of some doctrinal tendencies of that 
sect which he did not approve, and formed his con- 
verts into a separate organization in 1739. This was 
the formal establishment of the Methodist denomina- 
tion, though their first Conference was not held until 
1744. "Thus," John Wesley wrote, "without any 
previous plan, began the Methodist Society in Eng- 
land." 

From that day the new sect was persecuted by 
clergymen and magistrates; attacked from the pulpit 
and platform, in sermons, pamphlets and books. But 
it was of no avail, and the movement grew in force. 
The number of the followers of Wesley increased daily. 
The people's consciences felt the power of the truth, 
and responded to it. Man cannot stop the tide. When 
the heavenly orb calls the waters from the sea, they 
rise upon the land. To throw obstacles before the 
tide is but to increase the intensity of its force. God 
calls it ; his voice is heard, and must be obeyed. God 
called the Methodists, and they came. The tide that 
started in England a hundred and fifty years ago has 
not ceased yet, and perhaps it never will till time shall 
be no more. 

While John preached, Charles Wesley sang, and 
taught the people to sing, by composing hymns for 
them. He published over 4,000 hymns, and left more 
than 2,000 in manuscript when he died. All great re- 
vivals have been characterized by popular hymnology. 
Luther's hymns in the German Reformation, Calvin's 



214 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

in the Swiss, Marot's psalms in the French, and in our 
times the Gospel Hymns of Moody and Sankey, attest 
the power of sacred song to move the hearts of men. 
"When there is much glow of life, it must express itself, 
and this it does in work, preaching, prayer and sing- 
ing praise. 

George Whitefield was a dear friend of Wesley, and 
a more powerful preacher. But Whitefield had not the 
superb organizing powers of Wesley. This was the 
difference between the two men, and this accounts for 
the difference between the results of their work. White- 
field was a Calvinist, and Wesley an Arminian. They 
had some controversy over their points of difference, 
but finally agreed to be friends even if they did not 
think alike on all questions. They agreed on the es- 
sence of the plan of salvation, and could afford to dif- 
fer on other matters ; and so can all, and so ought all 
to differ in love and harmony, in non-essentials, while 
they hold up the cross of Christ. John Wesley did 
attach too much importance to the agency of a man in 
his own salvation, and denied the doctrine of particu- 
lar election ; this was a defect in his work. But whose 
work is perfect? Salvation by the blood of Christ and 
the absolute necessity of conversion were the main points 
of his preaching, and by emphasizing them he made an 
impression on the world w T hich shall never be effaced. 

Having but few ordained ministers and many preach- 
ing stations, W 7 esley licensed lay preachers. This fea- 
ture has remained in his system to the present time. 
He built a chapel in Bristol, then another in London, 
and so on throughout the kingdom. For a long time 
he held the title to them all himself. They were finally 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS. 215 

deeded to a body of preachers called the " Legal Hun- 
dred." When the debt upon a chapel became burden- 
some, it was provided that one in every twelve of the 
members should collect the contributions of the eleven 
allotted to him. Out of this expedient grew the sys- 
tem of class-meetings, which were found very helpful 
in affording instruction and promoting fellowship. In 
order to prevent unworthy people becoming members, 
"Wesley adopted the plan of probation, and had each 
congregation visited every three months for discipline 
and encouragement. Hence arose the "Quarterly 
Conference." The number of preachers being limited, 
and the congregations increasing, the itineracy of min- 
isters was adopted. The great organizer gave each 
one of his "helpers" thirty appointments per month. 
Long afterwards, when some one objected to the fre- 
quent changes, he said, " For fifty years God has been 
pleased to bless the itinerant plan, but the last year 
most of all. It must not be altered till I am removed, 
and I hope it will remain until our Lord comes to reign 
on the earth." 

For a long time Wesley adhered to the doctrine of 
apostolic succession, and held that no one had the 
right to administer the sacraments unless he had 
been ordained by a bishop, and that no one except a 
bishop had the right to ordain. He afterwards be- 
came convinced to the contrary, however, and declared 
that he himself was "as much a scriptural bishop as 
any man in England, and that any presbyter could 
perform the act of ordination." He ordained Dr. Coke 
as a superintendent for America, and Alexander Mather 
to the same office in England. Charles Wesley was 



216 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

utterly opposed to these bold steps, and counselled 
Lis brother not to do such things, and "leave an in- 
delible blot on our memory." But John was walking 
a little more rapidly than Charles in the path of truth, 
where Providence was leading him. However, he 
never formally seceded from the Church of England, 
though he rejoiced that the Methodists of America 
were free from the entanglements of a union of church 
and state. 

The industry of the great father of Methodism was 
prodigious. He travelled constantly on horseback, 
preaching usually twice or thrice a day. It is esti- 
mated that in this way he travelled more than a quar- 
ter of a million of miles, and delivered over forty thou- 
sand sermons. He organized churches, commissioned 
preachers, administered discipline, raised funds for 
schools, chapels, charities, prepared commentaries, and 
edited a vast amount of religious literature, conducted 
controversies, and carried on an almost unlimited cor- 
respondence. He lived a frugal, systematic life, rising 
for work at four o'clock in the morning, and was never 
idle, even for a few moments, except by compulsion, He 
was rather under the average height in his person, but 
well built and strong, having a clear eye and a spiritual 
as well as intellectual face. At the age of forty-eight 
he married a widow, but the union was not a happy 
one. He left no children. 

After. a short illness, John Wesley died March 2, 
1791, aged eighty-four years. The net visible results 
of his work were 135,000 members and 511 itinerant 
preachers, which constituted the Methodist denomina- 
tion on both sides of the Atlantic. But now, a hun- 



JOHN WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS. 217 

dred years after Wesley's death, Methodism counts 
23,000,000 adherents scattered over the face of the 
world ; and in England and America it would be hard 
to find any village or town without a Methodist church 
and a body of earnest Christians worshipping in it. 

God speed the Methodists, the great revival denom- 
ination of Christendom ! 



i9 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

The Establishment of Beligion in the United States 
of Ameeica. 

WHY was not the Western world populated from 
Europe as soon as it was discovered? Eric 
the Bed, of Norway, saw it in the year 1000 A. D. 
After five hundred years had passed, Columbus and the 
Cabots came. But the land lay practically untouched 
for more than a hundred years after Spain and England 
had claimed large portions of it for themselves. In- 
deed, not for two hundred years after Columbus dis- 
covered America was anything of importance done 
towards colonizing it with Europeans. Why? Be- 
cause God's time had not come. He was reserving 
America for a people whom he was preparing to pos- 
sess it. North America was destined to be a Protes- 
tant country. Spain and France were not to have it. 
It was to be the heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
God was keeping it for the Protestants. They were 
being trained in the furnace of persecution, and taught 
lessons which were to be of use to them and to man- 
kind through them for ever. Great principles of doc- 
trine and of civil and ecclesiastical government were 
to be worked out. When these were fully developed, 
and stated in confessions of faith and forms of govern- 
ment, when the great idea of the freedom of the human 
conscience from the authority of church or state had 

218 " ♦ 



RELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 219 

been evolved out of reason and the Scriptures by the 
hammer of Providence, God sent the people to a new 
world which he had reserved for them, where, untram- 
melled by the crystallized tyrannies of civil and religious 
oppression, they might demonstrate the power of lib- 
erty and truth before the eyes of mankind. 

Liberty and the truth should always go together. 
"Without knowledge, secular and sacred — in other words, 
without strong character, which comes with the posses- 
sion of truth — man is not fit for liberty. The ignorant 
masses of Roman Catholic countries in Europe were 
not capable of self-government, and never will be so 
long as they are ignorant ; and when they cease to be 
ignorant, they will cease to be Catholics. God sent the 
Protestants of the Old World to colonize the New. He 
was going to build a great civilization in the United 
States. He sent his best men to lay the foundations 
and give shape to the superstructure. Millions were 
to come afterwards, when the Protestant institutions of 
America were~fully established. 

The early settlers of the United States were the very 
nobility of Christianity, though they were not of the 
aristocracy of Europe. They belonged to the aristo- 
cracy of the kingdom of God. The United States were 
the offspring of the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The most important part of the work of estab- 
lishing liberty and truth in the New "World was done by 
men who never crossed the Atlantic, some of whom 
died, indeed, before Columbus was born. They were 
St. Augustine, Wickliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Knox, 
Cromwell, and the noble host they represented in the 
great struggle for the supremacy of the Scriptures as 



220 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

the rule of human conduct. The truth had never been 
wholly extinguished, even in the darkest periods of 
Roman Catholic oppression. The Waldenses of North- 
ern Italy, and the Culdees of the western islands of 
Scotland, as well as thousands of individual believers 
scattered throughout Europe, refused to allow any but 
Christ to occupy the throne of their consciences. 
Through centuries of fiery trial these heroes of the 
Alps and of the northwestern islands kept the faith, 
hoping for better times. The light that now fills the 
firmament of Protestant Christendom first glimmered 
over the Italian Alps and along the crests of the waves 
which break upon the shores of Scotland. A bruised 
reed God did not break, and smoking flax he did not 
quench, until he brought forth judgment unto victory. 
The study of the writings of St. Augustine was the 
human cause of the religious Reformation of the six- 
teenth century. All the great men, whose names now 
stand among the mightiest of earth, who led the peo- 
ple in those memorable conflicts, were, through the 
reading of his books, the pupils of the Bishop of 
Hippo, though he died a thousand years before their 
day. When Augustine vanquished Pelagius, and es- 
tablished the true doctrine of the nature of man and 
the plan of salvation, his work was but begun. Shortly 
after his death, in 430 A. D., Pelagianism began to 
make its way into the church, nor did it cease until it 
had permeated nearly the whole body, substituting for 
salvation by grace a vast system of forms and penances, 
which culminated in the debased Christianity of the 
centuries immediately preceding the Reformation pe- 
riod. But truth cannot be conquered ; God will have 



EELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 221 

Ms way ; and the doctrines called Augustinian, and 
Calvinistic, and, better still, Pauline, rose again on the 
horizon, at a later time, and have blessed the world 
with their beneficence ever since. Calvin was the 
greatest theologian who ever lived, as well as one of 
the kindest and purest of men, and Calvin's theology 
was the Augustinian or Pauline developed and formu- 
lated. Calvin is the worst slandered of the world's 
heroes. He was practically the author of the Christi- 
anity of the Reformation and of subsequent times. He 
furnished the doctrine for the whole scheme of Anglo- 
Saxon Protestantism. It is time men were finding out 
their real benefactors. There can be no great reform 
without a foundation of truth, and Calvin gave such a 
basis for Protestantism as no great movement ever had, 
before or since. The idea that it makes no difference 
what men believe, should be for ever abandoned. It 
is what men believe that differentiates the nations of 
the earth, that makes some men free and some slaves, 
some honorable and virtuous and others base. "As 
a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The truth is 
not generally known that Calvinistic, Augustinian, or 
Pauline theology liberated Northern and Western 
Europe from civil and ecclesiastical thraldom. Under 
John Calvin's influence Geneva was the training school 
of the Protestant world. Francis de Sales, an intense 
Roman Catholic, urged upon the Duke of Savoy the 
importance of suppressing the Reformation in Geneva, 
and said: "All the heretics respect Geneva as the 
asylum of their religion. There is not a city in Europe 
which offers more facilities for the encouragement of 
heresy, for it is the gate of France, of Italy, and Ger- 



222 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

many, so that one finds there people of all nations — 
Italians, French, Germans, Poles, Spaniards, English, 
and of countries still more remote. Besides, every one 
knows the great number of ministers bred there. Last 
year it furnished twenty to France. Even England ob- 
tains ministers from Geneva. What shall I say of its 
magnificent printing establishments, by means of which 
the city floods the world with its wicked books, and 
even goes the length of distributing them at the public 
expense ? All the enterprises undertaken against the 
Holy See and the Catholic princes have their begin- 
nings at Geneva. No city in Europe receives more 
apostates of all grades, secular and regular. From 
thence I conclude that Geneva being destroyed would 
naturally lead to the dissipation of heresy." 

Bancroft, on the Protestant side, writes : "More truly 
benevolent to the human race than Solon, more self- 
denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin infused 
enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and 
made it for the modern world the impregnable fortress 
of popular liberty." 

Dyer, in his History of Modem Europe, says: "The 
Lutheran Reformation travelled but little out of Ger- 
many and the neighboring Scandinavian kingdoms, 
while Calvinism obtained a European character, and 
was accepted in all the countries that adopted a re- 
formation from without, as France, the Netherlands, 
Scotland, even England ; for the early English Refor- 
mation, under Edward VI. , was Calvinistic, and Cal- 
vin was incontestably the father of our Puritans and 
Dissenters. Thus, under his rule, Geneva may be said 
to have become the capital of European, reform." 



KELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 223 

The greater part of the early immigrants to what is 
now the territory of the United States came for con- 
science sake. They were from the very best people of 
Europe, such as love their homes and native land. 
They would never have crossed three thousand miles 
of sea to dwell among savages unless forced to do so. 
Rut the oppressive measures of the governments east 
of the Atlantic made life intolerable for a Protestant. 
The w T rath of the bigots and despots of Europe was 
made by the Supreme Ruler to subserve his own great 
ends, and to be the instrument in his hands of creat- 
ing in the New World a home for the oppressed of all 
nations, where every man could worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of his own conscience. 

The English Episcopalians who settled in America 
were the principal exception to this rule. They did 
not fly from persecution, and they had their church 
established by law in Virginia, the Carolinas, and in 
New York State. Those who came for conscience sake 
were mainly Calvinists — the Huguenots, the Dutch, the 
Puritans, the Scotch, and the Scotch-Irish. Was ever 
nation formed by such noble people ? They were Cal- 
vinists, and their influence in shaping the destinies of 
the colonies can hardly be overestimated. 

Merle D'Aubigne says : " Calvin was the founder of 
the greatest republics. The pilgrims who left their 
country in the reign of James I., and landing on the 
barren soil of New England, founded populous and 
mighty colonies, were his sons, his direct and legiti- 
mate sons; and that American nation which we have 
seen growing up so rapidly, boasts as its father the 
humble Reformer of the shores of Lake Leman." The 



224 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

English, Scotch and Scotch-Irish were not refugees 
from Romish oppression, but from the tyranny of the 
Church of England. 

John Knox, before he became the leader of the Re- 
formation in Scotland, was one of the chaplains of 
Edward VI. of England. The Reformation movement 
under Edward VI. was Calvinistic in its character ; but 
when Mary came to the throne all was changed, and 
the leaders of the Protestant cause were compelled to 
leave the country. The greater part of them took re- 
fuge in Geneva, and John Knox was there, for a num- 
ber of years,, pastor of an English Protestant Church. 
These years spent in Geneva, under the influence of 
Calvin, were not wasted, but the effect of what these 
refugees learned there was manifest in their subse- 
quent history wherever they went under the leading 
of Providence. Mary reigned only five years, and 
after that the exiles were at liberty to return, which 
they did, intensified and confirmed in their convictions 
and in Calvinistic theology. They were never going 
to submit to religious oppression, but from that time 
were prepared to give up all for conscience sake. 

Bancroft writes: "A young French refugee (John 
Calvin), skilled in theology and civil law, in the duties 
of magistrates, and in the dialectics of religious contro- 
versy, entering the republic of Geneva, and conforming 
its ecclesiastical discipline to the principles of republi- 
can simplicity, established a party, of which English- 
men became members, and New England the asylum. 
He that will not honor the memory and respect the in- 
fluence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of 
American independence. . . . The light of his genius 



KELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES 225 

shattered the mask of darkness which superstition had 
held for centuries before the brow of religion." 

Castelar, the eloquent Spanish statesman, says: 
"The Anglo-Saxon democracy is the product of a 
severe theology learned by the few Christian fugitives 
in the gloomy cities of Holland and Switzerland, where 
the morose shade of Calvin still wanders ; . . . and it 
remains serenely in its grandeur, forming the most 
dignified, the most moral, the most enlightened, and 
the richest portion of the human race." 

The Puritans came to America in 1620, and settled 
in Massachusetts. New England has been their home, 
their glory and their pride, and all the world knows 
that they have been for generations among the fore- 
most promoters of literature, religion, statesmanship, 
commerce, the arts ; indeed, all that makes up the civil- 
ization of mankind. 

The Huguenots were the first Protestants who came 
to America, preceding the Puritans by very many years. 
In 1562 Admiral Coligny sent a colony of Huguenots 
to the Carolinas, but the attempt was unsuccessful. 
Another expedition under the same auspices landed in 
Florida in 1565, but the immigrants were all murdered 
by the Spanish Roman Catholics. In 1623 New Am- 
sterdam, afterwards called New York, was established 
by French Huguenots from Holland, where they had 
found shelter from the persecutions in France. The 
Huguenots settled mainly in New York State, Virginia, 
and the Carolinas; and though their numbers never 
were great in America, they have furnished a long list 
of distinguished names in politics, religion, war and 
literature. No other class of immigrants has given the 



226 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

country so many great men in proportion to their 
numbers. 

The Dutch, who followed the French in New York, 
and soon outnumbered them, were excellent colonists, 
and, like the Huguenots, professors of the religion of 
Geneva. They purchased Manhattan Island from the 
Indians for the sum of twenty-four dollars. 

Maryland was a Roman Catholic colony, and Balti- 
more is to this day the Catholic capital of the United 
States. 

The Quakers, a peculiar, but excellent and virtuous 
race, established the colony which has since grown 
into the great State of Pennsylvania. They purchased 
their lands from the natives, and it is said that no drop 
of Quaker blood has ever been shed by an Indian. 
The Quakers deserve great credit, and they present a 
striking contrast with the other colonists in their treat- 
ment of the original occupants of the soil. They 
always kept their word with the simple-hearted red 
man, and their confidence was seldom abused. 

The English Episcopalians settled in New York, 
Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. They had their 
church established by law, and were frequently oppres- 
sive in their treatment of other sects. In Yirginia the 
penalty of a fine was opposed for non-attendance upon 
the services of the Established Church, and in New 
York a Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Francis Make- 
mie, was imprisoned for preaching the gospel without 
the authority of the government. The Puritans also 
had their religion established by law in Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, and were as intolerant in their treat- 
ment of dissenters from their faith as were the Episco- 
palians in Yirginia and New York. 



RELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 227 

The Baptists first settled in Massachusetts, but were 
driven out by the Puritans, and under Roger Williams 
established themselves in Rhode Island. The Baptists 
were strong also in Yirginia, and have continued so to 
the present day, Richmond having perhaps a larger 
percentage of Baptists than any other important city 
in the world. 

Methodism did not make its appearance in America 
until 1773, but has achieved marvellous success in evan- 
gelizing the increasing population of the United States. 

The leading denominations in the struggle for liberty 
in the early days of the country were the Puritans and 
the Scotch-Irish. Of the Puritans we have already had 
a few words to say. The Scotch-Irish must not be 
passed by. They were from Ireland, but were either 
Scotch or descendants of Scotch refugees and immi- 
grants to the Emerald Isle. This noble race have 
made a name for themselves in the annals of the na- 
tion which is second to no other. The sturdy Scotch 
blood lost nothing by the admixture of a little Irish. 
Add Irish wit to the indomitable Scotch will, and the 
result is a fine combination. The Scotch-Irish settled 
in New York, Pennsylvania, the Yalley of Yirginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. They 
were famous for selecting the best lands, and their 
thrift and industry made them highly productive 

They were nearly all Presbyterians, and founded 
Presbyterian churches wherever they went. Many of 
the greatest theologians of America have been of this 
blood. They have furnished inventors, statesmen, 
jurists, authors, and, indeed, great leaders in all depart- 
ments of human progress. 



228 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

The early colonists of America, the most of whom 
came to these shores to escape religious persecution, 
did not all avoid the errors of their oppressors in the 
Old World. In some colonies religious toleration was 
exercised from the beginning, as in Maryland, founded 
by the Roman Catholics ; Rhode Island, a Baptist com- 
munity, and Pennsylvania, the home of the Quakers. 
But in the New England colonies, except Rhode Island, 
the Congregational Church was established, and the 
pilgrim fathers were as harsh in their treatment of the 
" Dissenters " as was the Church of England, either in 
the Old World or the New. 

Disestablishment was first accomplished in Yirginia 
as a result of the heroic efforts of the Presbyterians 
and Baptists, the old Presbytery of Hanover leading 
the conflict. The example of the Old Dominion was 
followed soon by New York, South Carolina, and other 
colonies where the Episcopal Church had also been 
established by law. Last of all, the New England 
States, where Puritanism was the state religion, adopted 
the new order of things, Connecticut giving up the es- 
tablishment of religion in 1816, while in Massachusetts 
some traces remained until 1833 of that unnatural union 
of civil and secular power which has caused trouble 
beyond computation in the church of God. 

It was not unnatural, that when the oppressed Pro- 
testants of Europe had the opportunity to exercise au- 
thority over their fellow-Christians, they should in a 
few cases fall into the errors they had so bitterly con- 
demned. But it did not continue long, and they not 
only ceased to persecute, but they also voluntarily re- 
signed the right, and gave perfect liberty to all. Soon 



EELIGION ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES. 229 

after the Revolution, religion was made practically free 
in the United States at large. The grand consumma- 
tion of a free church in a free state was now attained, 
and the goal of centuries was reached. The voice of 
God in history had long been calling it to become free 
from entanglements with human governments. The 
Protestant nation stood free and fresh upon the virgin 
soil of a new world. They were there in consequence 
of a divine command, and it was natural to expect that 
God had something of importance for them to do. 

A hundred years have passed, and who that reviews 
this first century of the Republic can say that those 
expectations have not been realized ? The world be- 
holds a nation of sixty-five millions of people, from all 
portions of the globe, living harmoniously together, 
while the country bounds forward in wealth, intelli- 
gence and power at a rate of speed never before 
equalled in the history of mankind. 

As we read the annals of human progress in the past, 
coming down to the splendid present, we inevitably 
ask the question, What is to be the ultimate result? 
To what is God calling Protestant Christendom? It 
is that they should teach the nations the great princi- 
ples of liberty and truth which have made Protestant 
civilization. The voice of God is calling us onward ; 
the world is our field. Let us maintain in their in- 
tegrity the precious institutions bequeathed us from 
the past, and by word and deed preach to all the truth 
which shall at last make the whole world free. 



20 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Pkotestantism and Lituegies. 

THE most widely used Protestant liturgy is the 
Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal churches 
of all countries. This is, perhaps, the most beautiful 
of all printed forms that have been used in the worship 
of God during the Christian era. It possesses a purity 
of diction, a rhythm, and majesty of style surpassed by 
no other English composition, and millions of good 
people find it an acceptable vehicle of devotion. At 
the same time, it cannot be denied that this prayer 
book is tainted with a certain amount of sacerdotalism, 
and that the doctrine of " Baptismal Regeneration " is 
implied in some of its forms. It is also justly liable 
to the criticism of being too long, and that the use of 
it in full does not allow sufficient time for the preach- 
ing of the word. 

The reason this is the finest of all liturgies is found 
in the fact that it is but a collection of the best ele- 
ments of nearly all other liturgies that have been used 
in the Christian church. Its history as an English 
prayer book began in 1549, when, in the reign of good 
King Edward VI., Cranmer and Ridley compiled it 
from the several Romish Missals, or mass-books, and 
the Breviary or Daily Service Book. These collections, 
gathered from those sources, and which had been 
long before compiled from many quarters by the Ro- 

230 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 231 

man Catholic Church, were translated from Latin into 
English, and concatenated for use by the congrega- 
tions. 

As a sample of the unhistorical trash which was left 
out, but which still remains in the Roman Breviary, 
the following passage is selected from the fourth lection 
for the festival of St. Silvester : 

"In which office of the priesthood he (Silvester) dis- 
tinguished himself above the rest of the clergy, and after- 
wards succeeded Melchiades on the papal throne, in the 
reign of Constantine. That emperor suffered from leprosy, 
and, in order to cure himself, by the advice of physicians, 
he ordered a bath to be prepared of infants 1 blood. But the 
holy apostles, Peter and Paul, appeared to him in private, 
and told him that if he wished to be free from his leprosy 
he should abandon the mad plan of an impious bath, and 
send for Silvester, dwelling in seclusion at Mount Soracte ; 
that by him the emperor should be refreshed in the bath of 
salvation, and should order temples to be built in every 
province of the Roman empire, after the fashion of the 
Christians, and that he should do away with the images of 
the vain deities, and institute the worship of the true God. 
Constantine, therefore, in obedience to the divine warnings, 
made diligent search for and summoned Silvester, by whom, 
recognizing the description of the apostles, he was baptized 
and incited to defend and extend the Christian religion." 

While this story is not true, it may still be said that 
the Roman Church, in promulgating such legends, has 
the merit of being logical ; for a church which teaches 
the perpetuity of the apostolic office should also hold 
that its apostles, like those whom God at first ordained, 
possess the power to work miracles. 

Another specimen may be given of the kind of de- 
votional literature furnished to the "faithful." In the 
Aberdeen Breviary of 1509, in the eighth lection for 



232 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

the festival of St. Serf, may be found the following 

gem : 

" A certain robber carried off one day a sheep which used 
to live and be fed in the house of St. Serf, and killed and 
ate it. Diligent enquiry was made for the thief, but with- 
out success. At lengih suspicion fell on the robber, and he 
hastened into St. Serf's presence, prepared to deny the ac- 
cusation with an oath. He swore a big oath that he was in- 
nocent of the charge laid against him, when, wonderful to 
relate (a fact which would not be believed on merely human 
testimony), the sheep which had lately been eaten began to 
baa in the stomach of the robber, whereupon, in cou fusion, 
the man fell prostrate upon the ground, and humbly asked 
for pardon, and the Saint prayed for him." 

The old " Gloria in Excelsis" which had been cor- 
rupted by the addition of elements of Mariolatry, was 
rectified. In the following extract the italicized words, 
which had been " farsed" as it was termed, into the 
text, were omitted : 

{Translation). — "Thou that takest away the sins of the 
world, receive our prayer, to the glory of Mary. Thou that 
sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us, 
for thou only art holy, sanctifying Mary. Thou only art 
most high, crowning Mary." 

Touching this revision, which is called the "First 
Prayer Book of Edward VI.," it may be stated that it 
was the first time in England, since the earliest ages, that 
the people were allowed to worship God in their own 
language. From this book all invocations of saints, and 
especially all worship of the Virgin, were expunged. 
" The various offices for the dead were also abolished," 
and prayers at burials connected with the doctrine of 
purgatory. These facts show how great was the gain, 
in this revision and translation, to the cause of truth. 



PKOTESTANTISM AND LITUKGIES. 233 

But much more still remained that was faulty and su- 
perstitious, as for example, " certain prayers for the 
dead," the use of the sign of the cross, unction of the 
sick, use of the mixed chalice in the communion, the 
word "mass" in the title of the communion service. 
The book containing these and other objectionable 
elements was used from 1549 till 1552, when another 
revision was ordered. The result of this was the pub- 
lication of what was called the " Second Prayer Book of 
King Edward YI." John Knox, who was at that time 
one of the chaplains in ordinary to the king of England, 
and who possessed, in the highest degree, his sovereign's 
confidence, even to the extent of being offered by him 
the bishopric of Kochester, which he stoutly declined 
as contrary to Scripture, was concerned in this latter 
revision, and was influential in having the popish ele- 
ments just mentioned, as well as many others, excluded 
from the work. 

It was a dark day for England when, the year fol- 
lowing (1553), on the 6th of July, King Edward died, 
and was succeeded by Mary, commonly called "Bloody 
Mary," on account of her persecutions of Protestants. 
One of the first acts of this cruel queen was to abolish 
Protestant worship altogether, and to order the resto- 
ration of the Romish Missal. This was in October, 
1553= In 1555 Ridley and Latimer were burned at the 
stake in Oxford, Latimer cheering his companion on 
their way to the place of execution with these words, 
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley; play the man. 
"We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, 
in England, as shall, I trust, never be put out." On 
the 21st of March, 1556, Archbishop Cranmer also 



234 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

perished in the flames at the same place. Many were 
put to death during this terrible reign of five years, 
and multitudes, among whom were John Knox, took 
refuge in Geneva, at that time the Protestant capital 
of Christendom. 

Mary's occupation of the throne was, happily, short, 
and on her death, in 1558, she was succeeded by the 
imperious Elizabeth. This occasioned the reestab- 
lishment of Protestantism and the restoration of the 
English Prayer Book. It was in a modified form, 
however, and not as good Edward YI. had left it. A 
number of the old objectionable features were restored, 
for Elizabeth was not thoroughly Reformed, and her 
Protestantism was, like that of her illustrious father, 
more political than religious. 

The Book of Common Prayer was again revised in 
1604, under James I., and still further in 1661-62, 
after the restoration of Charles II. During the period 
of the commonwealth, its use was forbidden, from 
1645 to 1651. The book, substantially as it now 
stands, was adopted for general use on St. Bartholo- 
mew's Day, August 24, 1662. 

The attempt had been made at the Savoy Confer- 
ence in London, in 1661, to unite the Puritans and 
Episcopalians in the revision of the Prayer Book. The 
effort was a failure ; but Dr. Baxter, together with a 
few other divines, several of whom had been members 
of the Westminster Assembly, rewrote the book, add- 
ing some excellent features, and expunging every trace 
of sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism. The results 
of their work were published, but never came into use. 
Professor Shields, of Princeton, issued in the United 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 235 

States, in 1867, this revision, under the title "The 
Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer." . So far as it 
is known, this interesting work has not been adopted 
by any Presbyterian churches, nor is it likely to be. 
A strong instinct for the preservation of ecclesiastical 
identity would naturally keep them from doing that 
which might cause them to be taken for Episcopalians. 

The Church of England has penetrated to every 
quarter of the world where the English language is 
spoken, and its Prayer Book, substantially the same in 
all climes, is the bond of union between its twenty 
millions of adherents. Their Book of Common Prayer 
is to them what the Westminster Confession and Cate- 
chisms are to English-speaking Presbyterians. The 
Episcopal Church has never set as high a value upon 
orthodoxy in doctrine as upon the maintenance of the 
forms and ceremonies of the church. While the Pres- 
byterian Church stands for. thoroughness of doctrinal 
instruction, the Episcopal represents the idea of pro- 
priety and solemn grace in worship, and God has a 
use for both in the kingdom of his saints on earth. 

It would not be fair to say that, while the Episcopal 
Church has for its prominent characteristic the litur- 
gical idea, it pays no great attention to doctrine, for 
such is not the case, and its brief creed of Thirty-nine 
Articles constitutes a confession of faith which any 
Calvinist might endorse. Nor, on the other hand, 
would it be historically correct, nor according to the 
facts with reference to present usage, to say that Pres- 
byterianism is altogether non-liturgical, for a very 
large proportion of the Presbyterians in the world do 
now use every Sabbath a liturgy in the worship of God. 



236 THE VOICE OP GOD IN HISTOEY. 

Liturgical worship is universal among those branches 
of the Presbyterian family called Reformed. In all 
but English-speaking countries that is the name by 
which Presbyterians are known; as, for example, in 
France, Holland, Switzerland and Hungary, excej)t in 
Italy, where they call themselves the Free Church and 
the "Waldenses. There are also in English-speaking 
countries many off-shoots from the Presbyterianism of 
the continent of Europe, which are called Reformed. 
Of this latter character are the Reformed (Dutch) 
Church in America and the Reformed (German) Church 
in the United States. All Presbyterian or Reformed 
churches in the European continent, and those de- 
scended from them in other countries, are liturgical in 
their worship, though their liturgies are entirely free 
from sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism, are optional 
as to use, and are so brief as not to interfere with the 
full preaching of the word, which has always been the 
main thing in their services. They also call for at 
least one extemporaneous prayer. 

The first Reformed liturgy was composed by an 
anonymous author, and published at Serrieres, Neu- 
chatel, Switzerland, in 1533, in the French language. 
This work has been, and not without reason, attributed 
to the great Reformer Farel. It was entitled : 

" The Manner and Fashion in which holy baptism may be 
administered in the holy congregation of God, and in which 
may be married those seeking to be united in holy matri- 
mony, and in which the holy supper of our Lord may be ad- 
ministered, in those places which God has visited with his 
grace, in order that, according to his holy word, what he 
has forbidden in his church may be rejected, and what he 
has commanded may be maintained. 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 237 

"Also the manner in which the preaching is to begin, pro- 
gress and end together with the prayers which may be used 
by all, for all things, and for the visitation of the sick" 
{-translation.) 

The author states in his preface that the book was 
published partly to refute the calumnies of the enemies 
of the Reformed, who charged that they lived like 
beasts ("comme betes"), having neither faith, law, sacra- 
ments, nor marriage. The language of this liturgy is 
chaste, spiritual and scriptural. 

The next or second Reformed liturgy was that pre- 
pared by John Calvin, while serving a church in Stras- 
burg from 1538 to 1541. The oldest edition extant of 
this important work, that of 1542, of which but a 
single copy is in existence, bears the following title : 

"The manner of making prayer in the French churches, 
boch before and after preaching, together with French 
psalms and canticles which may be sung in the churches; 
also forms for the administration of baptism and the supper 
of our Lord Jesus Christ; for the confirmation of marriage 
in the presence of the assembly of the faithful, as well as 
an explanation both of baptism and the supper, the whole 
according to the word of our Lord." {Translation.) 

This title shows that the author had in mind, in the 
preparation of this liturgy, a wider view than that it 
should be used simply by the Strasburg churches. In 
order to facilitate its circulation the publisher had re- 
course to a ruse in adding to the title the following 
words: "Printed at Rome, by command of the pope," 
whence the name "Pseudo-Roman" was popularly 
given to the first edition. 

This liturgy, which came into general use, though 
not without some changes, in the Reformed Churches 



238 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

of France and Switzerland, holds such an important 
place in history that a brief sketch of it may not be 
uninteresting. The order for Sabbath morning is as 
follows * 

" Our help is in the name of the Lord which made heaven 
and earth. 

" My brethren, let every one of us present himself before 
the face of the Lord with confession of his infirmities and 
sins, following with his heart my words : 

" Lord God, Father eternal and almighty, we unf eignedly 
confess before thy holy majesty that we are poor sinners, 
conceived and born in iniquity and corruption, inclined to 
do evil, disinclined from all good, and that in our sins we 
transgress continually thy holy commandments, by which 
we have, through thy righteous judgments, brought ruin 
and perdition upon ourselves. Always, O Lord, we are dis- 
pleased with ourselves because we have offended thee, and 
do condemn our vices with true repentance, desiring through 
thine assistance and grace to overcome our faults. Be 
pleased, then, to have pity upon us, O God and Father most 
beneficent and full of compassion, for the name-sake of thy 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to take away our sins and pollu- 
tion, bestow and increase in us from day to day the graces 
of thy Holy Spirit, in order that, recognizing our unworthi- 
ness with all our hearts, we may be affected with that sor- 
row which shall produce in us true repentance, making us 
ashamed of all our sins, and do thou bring forth in us such 
fruits of righteousness and innocency as shall be acceptable 
to thee. Amen." 

The minister then declares absolution as follows : 

" Let every one of you sincerely acknowledge himself as 
a sinner, humbling himself before God ; let him believe that 
the heavenly Father is propitious towards him through 
Jesus Christ. To all who thus truly repent and seek Jesus 
Christ for their salvation, I declare absolution in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
Amen.*' {Translation.) 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 239 

The next act of worship was the repetition of the 
first table of the commandments. The minister then 
made a short prayer, after which the assembly repeated 
the second table of the commandments, every com- 
mandment being followed by the " Kyrie Eleison" 
(" Zord, have mercy upon us" etc.). Another prayer 
was offered, and then came the sermon. After the ser- 
mon, a prayer of intercession was made, followed by 
the Lord's prayer. The congregation then sang a 
psalm, and were dismissed with the benediction. 

The minister stood by the communion table during 
the earlier portion of the service, or until the prayer 
before sermon ; but he ascended the pulpit to offer 
that, and continued there to the close. 

After the return of Calvin to Geneva, he published, 
in 1542, what soon became the official liturgy of the 
Reformed Church of that city, and of the Reformed 
Churches of France. It was bound up in all the psalm 
b)ooks of that time, and passed into general use. This 
was substantially the same as the liturgy which he had 
published before in Strasburg, though it was modified 
in some particulars. On account of opposition in the 
Genevan Church to such a form as the declaration of 
absolution after the confession of sin, Calvin very re- 
luctantly omitted that feature of the service. This lit- 
urgy was entitled : 

"Forms of church prayers and singing, together with an 
order for the ad-ministration of the sacraments and the sol- 
emnization of marriage, according to the usage of the ancient 
church." {Translation.) 

For authority for the above statements, and for fuller 
information on these subjects, see Historical Introduc- 



240 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

tion to the New Liturgy of the Reformed Church of 
France, prepared by Dr. Bersier, of Paris, 1888. 

The writer of the article on '' Liturgies " in the 
ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica gives the 
following as the order of service of the Genevan Chnrch 
under Calvin : 

" The service was to open with a portion of Scripture and 
the recitation of the ten commandments. Afterwards the 
minister, inviting the people to accompany him, proceeded 
to a confession of sins and supplication for grace. Then 
one of the Psalms of David was sung. After that came the 
sermon, prefaced by an extemporaneous prayer, and con- 
cluding with the Lord's prayer, creed and benediction. The 
communion service began with an exhortation leading up 
to the Apostles 1 Creed; then followed a long exhortation, 
after which the bread and cup were distributed to the peo- 
ple, who advanced in reverence and order while a psalm was 
being sung or a suitable passage of Scripture was being 
read. After all had communicated, a set form of thanks- 
giving was said by the minister. Then the hymn of Simeon 
was sung by the congregation, who were dismissed with the 
blessing. This form of service has been modified in various 
ways from time to time, but it remains substantially the 
type of service in use among the Reformed Churches of 
Germany, Switzerland and France." 

It is a significant fact, that in all the Reformed lit- 
urgies of the early days there was no provision made 
for the burial of the dead, except in the book used in 
the churches of the Canton de Yaud. In the ancient 
discipline of the Reformed Church of France occurs 
(Chapter X.) the following sentence: "In order to 
avoid all superstition, there shall be neither prayer, 
preaching, nor public alms-giving at interments." 
(Translation.) 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 241 

It thus came about that, in countries where strictly 
Calvinistic traditions prevailed, there were, for two 
hundred years, no religious services at funerals, except, 
perhaps, in some cases the offering of a prayer at the 
house before the body was carried away for burial. 
This was but an extreme reaction from the superstitious 
rites of the Komish Church. During the present cen- 
tury this has been changed, and the Reformed Churches 
of the continent have provision in their liturgies for 
simple scriptural forms of service for the burial of the 
dead, which is eminently proper, both in view of the 
glorious hopes that cluster about the death of a Chris- 
tian, and because of the consideration with which the 
body is always treated in the Scriptures, as well as on 
account of the doctrine of its resurrection at last to 
immortal life. 

While John Knox was in charge of the church cl 
the English refugees in Frankfort, he drew up, in 1554, 
a liturgy, which w T as little more than a translation of 
Calvin's work; and though he did not succeed in 
making it the book of the Frankfort congregation, be- 
cause of their high-church and ritualistic proclivities, 
he afterwards carried it to Geneva, and used it during 
the time of his pastorate of an English church in that 
city. When Knox was called back to his native land 
to organize the Church of Scotland, he introduced this 
liturgy, and it was adopted in 1560 by an act of the 
first General Assembly. From that date it became the 
established form of worship of the Scottish churches, 
and continued in use until the meeting of the West- 
minster Assembly, when, in 1645, the " Directory of Wor- 
ship " was adopted. This liturgy, which was used nearly 
21 



242 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

a hundred years in Scotland, was called the "Book of 
Common Order," or "John Knox's Prayer Book." The 
abandonment of the Book of Common Order may be 
accounted for in part by the fact that the Scottish 
mind does not possess a great amount of that peculiar 
kind of esthetic sentiment which finds a suitable expres- 
sion in the forms and ceremonies of an established lit- 
urgy, but perhaps more by the relations sustained by the 
Scotch to the liturgy of the Church of England through 
the troublous period of controversy. The English at- 
tempted to force Episcopacy and the Book of Common 
Prayer upon Scotland. The Prayer Book itself con- 
tained a considerable element of sacerdotalism, and was 
the visible representative of a government by a hierarchy 
of priests, bishops and archbishops, which were cor- 
dially hated north of the Tweed. Episcopacy fought 
the Scotch with the Book of Common Prayer ; conse- 
quently they came to hate the very idea of a liturgy. 

Times change, and men change with them. Other 
influences now affect the Scottish mind, and there is 
manifest a considerable liturgical tendency in many 
congregations, especially among those of the Estab- 
lished Church. In 1858 a committee of the General 
Assembly reported a collection of forms of worship to 
be used by soldiers, sailors, and others, which received 
the unanimous approval of the Assembly. A few years 
ago an institution called the Church Service Society 
issued their Eu-fcoXoytov, or "Book of Common Order," 
which has passed through several editions, and is hav- 
ing a wide influence on the worship of the Scottish 
churches. In St. Giles' Church, Edinburgh, which 
was Knox's old charge, and is the strongest ecclesias- 



PROTESTANTISM AND LITURGIES. 243 

tical establishment in Scotland, the liturgical element 
in public worship is freely used. 

The same tendency is even more strongly marked in 
Presbyterian churches of the United States. Constant 
contact with the beautiful liturgical services oi the 
Episcopal Church, without the bitter feelings engen- 
dered in former days by persecution, together with an 
increasing popular demand for more attractive forms 
of worship, are having a silent, but powerful, effect in 
many quarters, especially in the Northern States. The 
liturgical elements have been introduced mainly through 
the Sunday-school services, in which the children are 
taught to read responsively, to repeat the Ten Com- 
mandments, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer 
in concert. 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
in the Southern States has recommended to its Pres- 
byteries for adoption a Directory of Worship, which 
contains several liturgical features, and has ordered 
the preparation of forms of service for funerals and 
marriages. 

It is the duty of the historian to write history, and 
not to express opinions as to the expediency or pro- 
priety of measures which he records. So without any 
argument as to the advantages or disadvantages of li- 
turgical worship, the statement is confidently made 
that there is a movement among several of the denom- 
inations in the direction of liturgical services, and that 
it is likely to go much further in the future. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

Churchship. 

ACHIJECH is an organization of people, includ- 
ing their children, if there be any, holding the 
essential doctrines of Christianity, constituted for the 
worship of God in the administration of the sacraments, 
in the preaching of his word, in the offering of prayer 
and praise, in the maintenance of discipline, and in the 
prosecution of Christian work. 

A body of people thrown together fortuitously, as, 
for example, on shipboard, might do all the things men- 
tioned in this definition, but they would not be a church, 
because not organized. On the other hand, a company 
of men and women organized for work and worship are 
not a church unless, as an organization, they, through 
their officers, administer and receive the sacraments. 
The Young Men's Christian Association is a body or- 
ganized for work and worship, but it is not a church, 
nor does it claim to be. Though it preaches the gos- 
pel in its own peculiar way, just as any individual 
should do, it does not assume to administer the sacra- 
ments. 

It is not essential to its churchship that an organi- 
zation should bear any peculiar name. It may call 
itself Presbyterian, and it could hardly do better or 
Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, all of 
which are good, or by any other title; if it be what the 

244 



CHUKCHSHIP. 245 

above definition indicates, it is a church. Nor is it a 
matter of fundamental importance that it should be 
organized upon any special principle of government. 
"We confidently believe that the Presbyterian principle 
of church government by representative assemblies, 
composed of the two classes of elders, ruling and those 
who both rule and teach, is the scriptural one, and best 
suited to the wants of mankind ; but no peculiar form 
of government is essential to the existence of a church, 
if it professes the essential doctrines of Christianity. 
In point of fact, the principle of government by repre- 
sentative assemblies obtains to a greater or less extent 
in every Protestant body, and is making its way more 
thoroughly every day into all their ramifications of 
order and discipline. The holding of the true doc- 
trines tends to bring men right in government, and 
scriptural government operates towards the mainte- 
nance of the truth. 

Furthermore, it is not necessary that a church should 
be organized by any peculiar mode or in any line of ec- 
clesiastical succession. The best way to organize a 
church is by a presbytery, but a bishop may do it, or 
an evangelist, or a committee ; or the church, in certain 
circumstances, may organize itself, and hold organic 
connection with no ecclesiastical body whatever. For 
example, suppose a number of people travelling by ship 
should be cast away upon an uninhabited or heathen 
isle. They find a Bible among the treasures saved 
from the wreck, and being cut off entirely from civili- 
zation, they think of organizing themselves into a 
church. They do so, electing some of their number 
to hold ofiice, and one to preach. Have they not a 



246 THE VOICE OF GOD EN HISTOEY. 

right to do it ? Undoubtedly, and as they study their 
Bible, they organize themselves, as they understand it, 
upon the Bible model. It may turn out to be a Pres- 
byterian church, or a Methodist, or a Congregational, 
or a Lutheran, or an Episcopal, or some other ; or they 
may invent some name and peculiar form never used 
before ; but they are a church, if they hold the essen- 
tial doctrines of Christianity, have the sacraments ad- 
ministered, and meet together for divine worship. If 
a body like this should at last come into communica- 
tion with Christendom, still keeping their home in the 
island of the sea, and should apply for recognition in 
Protestant churches, would they not receive it? Yes, 
by all means ; and a member dismissed from them by 
letter would be received into any church except those 
which always refuse to acknowledge the churchship of 
those who do not conform to their peculiar usages. 
The Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Re- 
formed would receive him on his letter, thus fully 
recognizing the churchship of the body from which he 
came. Indeed, the church itself would be received as 
organized by any denomination with whose order it 
agreed. So it is not essential, in order to be a church, 
that a body shall bear any peculiar name, maintain any 
special principle of government, nor be organized by 
any particular method of ecclesiastical procedure. It 
derives its succession from Christ through his word, 
and every true church is really organized bj T the Lord, 
whatever means he may use to accomplish it. An 
organization, the profession of the essentials of our 
holy religion, and the maintenance of the sacraments, 
are distinctive characteristics of a church. Nay, thero 



CHUKCHSHIP 247 

must be one thing more — some fruits of the Spirit must 
be seen in the lives of the members. A wholly cor- 
rupt body could not claim to be a church under any 
circumstances. But, so far as history informs us, such 
a case has never occurred, and probably never will 
occur to the end of time. The essential truths of 
Christianity, the sacraments and the organization of a 
body for the worship of God, have always been found 
in connection with more or less righteousness of life. 

But some man will say, does not the Roman Catholic 
Church come under your definition ? No ; for, though 
they profess to hold the essential doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, they also hold and teach most earnestly other 
doctrines and usages which fundamentally contradict 
and destroy them. So it cannot be said that the Ro- 
man Catholic Church does in any true and effective 
manner hold the essential doctrines of religion. 

What are 'die essential doctrines ? They all cluster 
about one word — Cheist. Salvation by faith in Christ 
crucified and risen, a divine Saviour, is the central orb 
of Christianity. This involves, of necessity, the Trinity, 
natural depravity, the forgiveness of sins, regeneration, 
the resurrection, the final judgment, and the whole 
constellation of doctrines which fill the firmament of 
truth. Christ is the Sun, and all other religious truth 
is seen by his reflected light. 

These statemerjts may seem broad, and they are, but 
they are no broader than the Bible, nor than the prin- 
ciples and genius of the Presbyterian Church. These 
are the principles on which it stands before mankind, 
as the most liberal of all churches ; and along the line 
of these sentiments it has worked to the position which 



248 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTOKY. 

it dow holds, of being the largest body of Protestant 
Christians in the world. 

What is the church f Not the Presbyterian denom- 
ination, nor any other. How foolish in any division 
of the great family of Christ to claim to be the church ! 
The church is the great body of all people, including 
the children, who hold the essential, doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. This church is one and the same in all ages. 
It is not divided, it never has been, and never can be. 
Its unity may be obscured and denied, but it is inde- 
structible. Brothers are brothers, whether they ac- 
knowledge one another or not. They may refuse to sit 
at each other's table, or even to speak to one another, 
but they never can be anything but brothers. No power 
on earth can alter the fact. They are brothers because 
they are children of the same father. When we pray 
for Christian unity, we are simply praying that a fam- 
ily feud may be healed. 

The invisible church is the whole body of the re- 
deemed. No one knows but God the whole number 
of its members. Their names are written in the 
"Lamb's Book of Life." Oh! how delightful it would 
be to look into that book and find your name written 
there ! Yes, but you would be made miserable by the 
thought that there might be another person of the 
same name as yourself. Better than to read your name 
in the Book of Life is to read Jesus' name written on 
your own soul. This is what all ma}- do, for if we be- 
lieve in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will write his name upon 
our souls with a finger dipped in the blood of Calvary. 

The church of the living God, in this last, truest 
sense, is in both worlds. The great majority are in 



CHUKCHSHIP. 249 

heaven. The members are constantly going over to the 
places prepared for them. Somewhere in the East was 
a city, in ancient times, built on both sides of a river, 
but the people gradually moved from the eastern side, 
and at last they were all living on the western. It is 
so in the city of God. It is built on both sides of the 
river of death, and the inhabitants are constantly mov- 
ing over. After a while they will all be on the other 
side, and in this world will be left nothing but ruins 
and old deserted houses from which the occupants 
have gone away for ever. Then will the church be 
perfect and complete, her unity will be manifested, and 
her holiness, and God shall dwell in the midst of her 
through all eternity. This is the Holy City — New 
Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 
The Gbeat Theophany. 

ALL life moves to express itself, and its expression 
or utterance is its word. A tiny plant buds, 
blooms, bears fruit, fades away and dies. Its word is 
spoken. The bird flies from its natal nest, sings its 
song of songs, flitting from bough to bough, falls to 
the earth and crumbles into dust, because it has uttered 
its life, and told the tale of its being. The utterance 
of plant and animal life makes the world habitable 
and beautiful. 

Man's being moves to express itself. He conceives 
a picture, and with paint and pencil places it on can- 
vas. It first existed in his mind, and then was ut- 
tered in forms and colors which speak for the genius 
of the artist. Another man thinks a statue, and with 
chisel and mallet crystallizes it in stone in forms that 
only lack breath, or lips that need but sound, to give 
animation. The life of humanity utters itself in pic- 
tures, statues, temples, railways, bridges, steamships, 
poems, histories, philosophies, constitutions, govern- 
ments, empires. The world is full of the utterances 
of men, and the sum of it all constitutes history. 

But man's being rises to a higher putting forth of 
itself than any or all of these manifestations ; it is in 
paternity. He begets a child, and beholds in him the 
highest utterance of his being. He sees the expression 

250 



THE GREAT THEOPHANY. 251 

of his body and soul in his child ; he is his express 
image. He loves to be told that his child is like him- 
self. However homely or poor he may be, he would 
rather have his babe resemble him than to be like the 
greatest of earth. It is so with the peasant, it is so 
with the king, and the monarch in his palace takes 
more pleasure in his infant prince than in all the 
armies and navies of his great empire. 

God's august being moves eternally to utter itself, 
and in a manner similar to man's. Man is God's min- 
iature, and one of the best w^ays to learn God is in the 
study of his image of ourselves. God has been from 
eternity putting forth the powers of his being. His 
first creations, so far as we are informed, were angels. 
He opened his lips and uttered these transcendent 
spirits which people heaven. He whispered light ; 
the stars are his words spoken into space ; the world 
is a projection of his thought and power. When God 
created the world, laid it out like a great garden in 
continents, islands, mountains, lakes, seas, and placed 
man within it to be its lord, he sat down upon his 
throne in blissful contemplation of the utterance of his 
wisdom and might. It was the joy of the painter, the 
sculptor, the engineer, the statesman, the philosopher, 
carried to its infinite degree of development. 

But God's being moves to a higher utterance of itself 
than in all the works of creation. It is in the eternal 
generation of his Son. Let us go back in thought to 
the period in duration before which there was nothing. 
The worlds were made yesterday, and the day before 
yesterday the angels were created. Antecedent to that 
there was only eternity and God. No being but him- 



252 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

self lived in the infinite universe. It is an overwhelm- 
ing thought. We have come to the pinnacle of being, 
and confront a condition that had no beginning, in 
which there was but one inhabitant of universal space. 
Was God lonely ? Did he miss man or angel, or planet 
or sun? No; the glorious doctrine of the Trinity 
comes in here to fill up the gap. God the Father, 
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost found in the 
fellowship of the three adorable persons, in the har- 
mony of one substance and one being, the supremest 
happiness. What opportunity had God to put forth 
the powers of his being? In the projection of himself 
in the person of his Son, the second person of the 
Trinity; and this not by an instantaneous act begun 
and finished, but without beginning and without end — 
the eternal generation of the Son, and the infinite com- 
placency of seeing himself in him. We have arrived 
in this inquiry at the mighty and awful sanctum sanc- 
torum of all life, and at the fountain of supernal bliss. 
God's being moves to the manifestation of this high- 
est expression of itself in time as well as eternity. 
From the beginning of history the hint of a great the- 
ophany was given. From age to age it was repeated 
and enlarged. The elaboration of the promise of the 
protevangelium constituted the sum of Old Testament 
worship and history. God was going to reveal himself, 
and was preparing his people and the world to receive 
the revelation. He was going to reveal the life and char- 
acter of God in the life and character of a single man, 
by joining divinity to humanity. The greatest of all 
questions is, What is God ? All men have answered 
it, and their answers are the human religions of the 



THE GEEAT THEOPHANY. 253 

"world. How absurd their answers have been! They 
have never made a god as good as the best man. Now 
God will tell the world what God is. We have good 
definitions drawn from the Scriptures, but the best 
definition of God is God. No description of a thing 
can equal seeing the thing itself. Let us see God, says 
the world, and God utters himself before mankind that 
they may see him. 

Nevertheless, the advent of Christ was one of the 
greatest of all disappointments. The Jews looked for 
a temporal sovereign, who would deliver them from 
Roman tyranny, restore the glory of the Solomonic 
age, and give to them the mastery of the world. They 
would have been pleased to have a redeemer who 
would call out the heroism of the people, marshalling 
them upon the Juclean plains, and lead them to victo- 
rious battle, bathed in the gore of their enemies ; or, 
"Better still, to have him command hosts of shining 
angels in the sky, striking terror to the hearts of all 
their foes. All their expectations of a Messiah were 
temporal and worldly ; they did not sigh for deliver- 
ance from sin. That was the last thiug they wished ; 
rather would they prefer to cling to their sins and en- 
joy the sovereignty of earth in sin. All who suffered 
under a sense of guilt knew him, loved him, believed 
in him, and found unspeakable peace in his words. 
Heaven looked upon an unconscious world when 
Christ was born. The wakeful shepherds heard the 
angels sing the anthem of advent, and the silent star 
pointed the wise men of the East to the spot where he 
lay in a manger on the bosom of his mother. Such a 
theophany was contradictory to every human concep- 



254 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

tion of God and his salvation. The way cf the atone- 
ment — by death — made it necessary that he should be 
poor and humble. The world could not be saved with- 
out the sacrifice of the eternal Son, and this was the 
only possible method of its accomplishment. 

During the life of our Lord, the character and the 
glory of God were manifested. His glory consists in 
his character, and so prominent is his affection for 
man that an apostle was authorized to say, God is 
love. This was a mighty revelation. The definition 
of God given by men had been fundamentally differ- 
ent, and, from the pains to which they subjected them- 
selves in worship, one would think the world's defini- 
tion might be condensed into, God is hate. God is 
just, and will punish all sin, but loved men so well that 
he punished it in himself, assuming its guilt in his own 
person. When he walked among men he showed his 
love by all his words and deeds. He healed the sick, 
raised the dead, and every miracle except one was a 
miracle of love. The one exception was the blasting 
of the unfruitful fig tree. When he would show his 
power to destroy the finally impenitent, he does not 
select a man, however sinful, nor a beast, but an in- 
sensate tree; for he said, " The Son of man is come to 
save that which is lost." 

The resurrection was the greatest proof of his divin- 
ity. He let the world do its worst, and then calmly 
rose triumphant over death, hell and sin. But the 
whole subsequent history of the world was going to be 
an argument for his divine Kingship. More and more 
is it becoming manifested to those who will see, that 
Jesus Christ is God, and that he rules the world, bring- 



THE GKEAT THEOPHANY. 255 

ing about his own great designs. He moves not with 
the eager haste of one who, fearing a failure, rushes to 
his goal, but with the calm deliberateness of him who 
is conscious of all power in himself. More and more 
clearly will his power appear, until at last, in the light 
of the judgment day, it will be seen that the whole his- 
tory of time subsequent to the fall in Eden was but a 
continued theophany, by which God showed himself to 
his creatures as they were able to bear it, culminating 
in a sunrise of transcendent glory at the end. The 
great thought of the old dispensation was, Christ is 
coming; and the work of the new dispensation is to 
show to all mankind that he is God. 



CHAPTER XXY. 

The Age of Missions. 

AT the beginning of the present century, Christian 
missions had hardly an existence. After our 
Lord's ascension his disciples went everywhere on the 
then known world, preaching the gospel of the king- 
dom. Their success was commensurate with their 
faith, and it was but a comparatively short time before 
Christianity became the professed religion of the world. 
During modern times we have seen new nations rising 
out of obscurity, and many of the older ones falling 
into ignorance and vice. The field is as great before 
the church now as when the Lord first said, "Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature." In these last ages there had been almost 
nothing done for the evangelization of the heathen, 
until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

The nations without the gospel were inaccessible to 
missionaries. China was perfectly isolated by walls 
and exclusive laws ; India was held by a civilized 
power not yet favorable to missions ; Africa was lying 
under a black and impenetrable veil ; and the islands 
of the South Sea were inhabited by cannibals, who 
stood ready to devour the first Christian who came to 
tell them of Jesus ; the Mohammedan empire forbade 
apostasy from Islamism under penalty of death, and 
the Papacy, proud in its might, would not allow even 

256 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 257 

the circulation of a Bible among its millions of people. 
The great distances to be traversed, and the slow com- 
munication, made missions most difficult and expen- 
sive, and the foreign fields appeared so far away as 
almost to seem to exist but in the realms of imagina- 
tion. 

As commerce extended its myriad paths all over the 
globe, a hope began to dawn that now had come the 
great opportunity for universal evangelization. But 
behold a new difficulty : commerce showed the hea- 
then the worst traits of Christendom. The sailors, 
soldiers and traders who came into personal contact 
with those who had never heard of Christ were poor 
representatives of the fruits of our holy religion. The 
first fruits of civilization which they carried to the 
heathen were strong drink, opium, weapons of death, 
cruelty, deceit, lust, and all manner of outrage and 
wrong. This outer wall, reared by civilization itself, 
was almost as insurmountable as the inner wall raised 
by idolatry against the entrance of the truth of God. 

On the part of Christians there was but the smallest 
degree of interest shown in the millions who sat in 
darkness and the shadow of death. A man who pro- 
posed a foreign mission was considered a fanatic, and 
it was seriously declared by many of the best of Chris- 
tians, that to undertake to evangelize the heathen was 
to distrust God's providence and to meddle with his 
government. It is most significant, however, in this 
connection, to notice that these days of anti-missionary 
feeling in the church constitute a period of infidelity 
and immorality such as now seems almost incredible. 
These were the times when it was not considered dis- 



258 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTOEY. 

graceful for a minister to be moderately dissipated, and 
when a man could hardly be called a scholar or a 
statesman if he were not also an infidel. 

At the beginning of the last decade of the century, 
what a change do we see ? The whole of Protestant 
Christendom arousing to the great work of missions ; 
the Bible circulated in over two hundred and fifty lan- 
guages and dialects, and a net-work of mission stations 
spreading over the whole earth, while here and there 
thousands of congregations of native converts from 
heathenism shine like stars in the darkness. There is 
hardly a country on earth where Christians are not 
free to preach the gospel, and to worship God. 

This mighty change has not come by magic, but 
through the faith, zeal, and inconceivable sufferings of 
thousands of saints. God has opened the way by his 
providence in the affairs of nations, often using the 
very hatred of his enemies to bring about his great 
designs. The providential opening of the doors of 
heathen nations has been a voice of God calling his 
church to enter everywhere and preach the Gospel. 
It has heard, and is heeding, and whereas it has not 
come fully up to its great opportunity, yet it has done 
enough to show that it feels its responsibility. 

Away back in the last days of the sixteenth century 
Queen Elizabeth chartered a company to trade in the 
East Indies. In 1612 Captain Beal obtained from the 
Government of Delhi consent to carry on commerce 
with the people. This company soon had great finan- 
cial interests established here and there in India. Fac- 
tories and trading ports had to be protected, must 
possess land, and the number of foreigners increased, 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 259 

merchants, soldiers, and artisans, until, to make a long 
story short, the English gradually came to be the real 
owners and rulers of the country. It was not until the 
latter part of the nineteenth century, however, that the 
Queen of England was proclaimed Empress of India. 
In 1858 the "East India Company" had be.en finally 
abolished, and all its assets turned over to the crown 
of England. The government of the British in India 
has not been altogether just and righteous. There are 
some foul blots upon its record. In many cases the 
policy of the British was oppressive and cruel, and 
they were by no means favorable to Christian missions. 
But the character of British rule changed, and when 
the missionaries had an opportunity to show the fruits 
of religion in making the Indians better subjects, the 
government came to encourage the efforts of those who 
were endeavoring to lead the people out of darkness 
into the life-giving light of the Gospel. Now the two 
hundred and fifty millions of India are open to receive 
the truth, from thousands of missionaries who are eager 
to teach them. Four times the population of the United 
States, in that one country, are beginning the march of 
Christian civilization. What a change has come upon 
India! Railways, telegraphs, postal facilities, a hun- 
dred colleges, sixty thousand schools, and hundreds 
of printing-presses scattering truth over the land, show 
what is being done. The English language is also 
taught throughout India, and in many places large 
audiences gather to hear visitors from America speak 
in our own tongue. 

The work of missions in India, so long ridiculed, is 
now such an acknowledged success that men of the 



260 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

world unite in bearing testimony to the value of the 
results accomplished there. 

Sir William Muir, long a governor of a province in 
India, says : " Thousands have been brought over, and, 
in an ever-increasing ratio, converts are being brought 
to Christianity ; and these are not shams nor paper 
converts, but good and honest Christians, and many of 
them of a high standard." 

Sir Herbert Edwards says : " God is forming a new 
nation in India. While the Hindus are busy pulling 
down their own religion, the Christian Church is rising 
above the horizon. Every other faith in India is 
decaying; Christianity alone is beginning to run its 
course. I believe if the English were driven out to- 
day Christianity would remain and triumph." 

Sir Richard Temple, for a quarter of a century in 
India, as governor in turn of the Bengal and Bombay 
presidencies, sa}'s : " There will, by the year 1910, be 
about 2,000,000 native Christians in India." 

Sir Bartle Erere writes : " Whatever you may be told 
to the contrary, the teaching of Christianity among the 
one hundred and sixty millions of civilized, industri- 
ous Hindus and Mohammedans in India is effecting 
changes, moral, social, and political, which, for extent 
and rapidity of effect, are far more extraordinary than 
anything that you or your fathers have witnessed in 
modern Europe." 

The native Prince of Travancore, in 1874, said pub- 
licly : " Where did the English-speaking people get all 
their intelligence, and energy, and cleverness, and 
power ? It is their Bible that gives it to them. And 
now they bring it to us and say, ' This is what raised 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 261 

us. Take it and raise yourselves.' They do not force 
it upon us, as the Mohammedans did their Koran, but 
they bring it in love, and translate it into our languages, 
and lay it before us and say, 'Look at it, read it, ex- 
amine it, and see if it is not good." Of one thing I am 
convinced : do what we will, oppose it as we may, it is 
the Christian's Bible that will, sooner or later, work 
the regeneration of this land. Marvelous has been 
the effect of Christianity in the moral moulding and 
leavening of Europe. I am not a Christian ; I do not 
accept the cardinal tenets of Christianity as they con- 
cern man in the next world ; but I accept Christian 
ethics in their entirety. I have the highest admiration 
for them." 

Dr. Sherring, of Allahabad, declared, that if the gos- 
pel conquests should advance for two hundred and 
fifty years as between 1851 and 1871, all India would 
be Christianized. Kev. Narayan Sheshadri, a famous 
native preacher, however, well added that, " God works 
according to a higher arithmetic of his own. I have 
no faith to wait for two hundred years. From what I 
have noticed in our own country, and other countries, 
the time may not be far distant when we shall have 
gone from sixty thousand converts to a hundred thou- 
sand, and from a hundred thousand to a million, and 
then, within a short time, the whole of India will be 
evangelized." 

So much for India. It does seem as if a great rain- 
bow of promise spanned that wonderful country, which 
has been described as the brightest jewel in the crown 
of England. Let us devoutly hope that ere long it will 
shine in the diadem of the King of kings. 



262 THE VOICE OF GOD IN. HISTOEY. 

We turn now to China. It is a country having 
350,000,000 inhabitants, intelligent, industrious, thrifty : 
the "Yankees of the Orient." Perhaps there are no 
prouder or more self-satisfied people than the Chinese, 
and that not without reason. They boast of a civiliza- 
tion founded upon Confucius, one of the noblest of 
heathen, who was born 550 B. C. Excepting the elec- 
tric telegraph, the steam engine, the telephone, and a 
few more of the great inventions of modern times, there 
are few of the instruments of civilization which were 
not known to the Chinese long before they were dis- 
covered by the nations of Europe. The mariner's com- 
pass, movable type, printing and paper, porcelain, 
silk, gunpowder, etc., were familiar to these wonderful 
Orientals before they were dreamed of in the West. 
But one of the most remarkable features of China is 
its "myriad mile wall," which is the greatest rampart 
for defence ever built by man. It is fifteen hundred 
miles long, from fifteen to thirty feet high, with towers 
rising forty feet, and is of sufficient breadth to furnish 
a roadway on top for six horsemen to ride abreast. 
This great barrier between China and the outside world 
is typical of the spirit of the government and the peo- 
ple. They consider themselves as celestials, and all 
the rest of mankind as devils. The emperor is the 
Son of Heaven, sits upon a dragon throne, and receives 
from his subjects divine honors. The Chinese spend 
$180,000,000 annually on their various religions, Con- 
fucianism, Tauism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism. 
It must be said that the Chinese, despite their univer- 
sal religiousness, are lacking in nearly all the traits of 
true piety. 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 263 

Protestant missions began in China in 1807, when 
Robert Morrison, the pioneer, went to Canton to 
preach Christianity. After seven years he baptized 
his first convert, and completed his translation of the 
New Testament in the language of the people. In 1818 
he, together with William Milne, gave the empire the 
whole of the Scriptures. The work went on growing 
steadily, and the number of converts increased. Now 
there are over thirty missionary societies at work in 
China, with about four hundred missionaries and teach- 
ers, one hundred stations, and five hundred out-stations. 

The China Inland Mission, organized in 1865, by J. 
Hudson Taylor, is now attracting the attention of all 
Christians by its remarkable methods and work. It is 
organized upon five principles : " 1, It is unsectarian, 
but evangelical, representing exclusively no branch of 
the church, but welcoming friends and workers from 
all denominations ; 2, It has no inflexible educational 
standard of qualification, insisting only on a fair mea- 
sure of ability and acquisition, with good health, good 
sense, and consecration ; 3, It is conducted as a work 
of faith, incurring no debt, asking no aid, fixing no 
salaries, but distributing funds as they are sent in ; 4, 
It requires workers to identify themselves with the 
people for whom they labor, in dress, queue, etc. ; 5, 
It magnifies dependence on God, as the sole patron of 
the mission." Its income for 1884 was $100,000, and 
a distinguished missionary of the American Presbyte- 
rian Church prophesies that in ten years this mission 
will equal in numbers in China those from all other 
agencies. 

After the war of 1856, in which Great Britain led 



264 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

the way in a crusade against China, in which after- 
wards France, Bussia and the United States took part, 
the Treaty of Tientsin was adopted, in which the fol- 
loAving provision occurs : " The Christian religion, as 
professed by Protestants and Boman Catholics, incul- 
cates the practice of virtue, and teaches man to do as 
he would be done by. Persons teaching or professing 
it, therefore, shall alike be entitled to the protection of 
the Chinese authorities ; nor shall any such, peaceably 
pursuing their calling and not offending against the 
laws, be persecuted or interfered with." 

This broke down the wall which had for centuries 
isolated China from the fellowship of nations. Now 
any Chinese may embrace the Christian religion with- 
out fear of anything more than religious ostracism. 

Well does Dr. Gracey say that "never before since 
the world began did any one document, so brief, admit 
at once to the possibilities of Christianity so large a 
portion of the human family, or roll on the Christian 
Church so much responsibility. It admitted one -third 
of the human race to the brotherhood of Christian na- 
tions. That door was opened not by the vermilion 
pencil of the Emperor, but by the decree of the Eter- 
nal." (Open Doors. By J. T. Gracey, D. D. Pp. 35,36.) 

Dr. Williams, after thirty-two years in China, de- 
clares that half a century more of missionary work 
among the celestials will evangelize the whole nation. 

The "Island Empire," or "Sunrise Kingdom," as 
Japan is often called, presents a most hopeful prospect 
for advancing the cause of Christ on earth. In the 
middle of the sixteenth century Francis Xavier, a Bo- 
man Catholic missionary, visited Japan, and was soon 



THE AGE 0E MISSIONS. 265 

able to report vast numbers of converts to the papal 
church, not only from the middle and lower classes, 
but also from the nobles and princes. In 1582 the 
Catholic converts sent an embassy to Rome bearing 
presents to the sovereign pontiff. But the Portuguese 
merchants and the missionaries at length aroused 
against themselves a great feeling of distrust and hos- 
tility by reason of their lordly assumptions. A decree 
was promulgated expelling them from the country. 
This was followed by most horrible massacres. At 
last the hatred of the foreigners culminated in the fol- 
lowing decree issued by imperial edict: "So long as 
the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so 
bold as to come to Japan ; and let all know that the 
king of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the 
great God of all, if he violate this command, shall pay 
for it with his head." 

Japan was finally opened for Christian missions by 
the American navy, in 1853, under the command of 
Commodore M. C. Perry, who went to Yeddo, demand- 
ing protection for American shipping and commerce. 
Seven United States ships-of-war cast anchor in the 
harbor of Yeddo, on a Sunday, and the Commodore, 
with the capstan of his vessel covered with an Amer- 
ican flag for a pulpit, held Christian services, by read- 
ing the one hundredth psalm in prose, and then sang 
it in Keithe's version — 

" All people that on earth do dwell, 

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice , 
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, 
Come ye before him and rejoice." 

This was a fitting introduction to the great work of 
23 



26 G THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

modern missions in Japan. Perry effected a treaty 
with the government, opening Japan to the world, and 
all without the shedding of a drop of blood. Won- 
derful progress has been made in Japan by the Pro- 
testant missionaries of various countries; and though 
the nation is still far from being Christian, yet it is evi- 
dently on the march for this glorious consummation, 
which cannot be very far in the future. 

As one indication of the changes that have come 
about in the " Sunrise Kingdom," it may be noted that 
whereas twenty-five years ago there was not a single 
newspaper published within its whole territory, there 
are now over two thousand, which is more than are 
issued in Russia and Spain combined. There are hun- 
dreds of congregations of converts scattered all over 
the realm, and Christianity is recognized as one of the 
great facts and forces of the life of the nation. 

The Dark Continent is not to be overlooked. Liv- 
ingstone, after years of toil, danger and sickness, died 
in Africa, on his knees, amid the swamps of Lake 
Bangweolo, in May, 1873, and this was the signal for 
the evangelization of the long-neglected land. The 
cloak of the dying hero fell upon the shoulders of 
Henry M. Stanley, who for a long time has been labor- 
ing at the imminent risk of his life to open up "Darkest 
Africa" to civilization and Christianity. He says: "I 
have been in Africa for seventeen years, and I have 
never met a man who would kill me if I folded my 
hands. What has been wanted, and what I have been 
endeavoring to ask for the poor Africans, has been 
the good offices of Christians, ever since Livingstone 
taught ine during those four months that I was with 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 267 

him. In 1871 I went to liim as prejudiced as the 
biggest atheist in London. To a reporter and corres- 
pondent, such as I, who had only to deal with wars, 
mass-meetings, and political gatherings, sentimental 
matters were entirely out of my province. But there 
came for me a long time for reflection. I was out there 
away from a worldly world. I saw this solitary old man 
there, and asked myself, 'How on earth does ke stop 
here ? Is he cracked, or what ? "What is it that in- 
spires him ? ' For months after we met I simply found 
myself listening to him, wondering at the old man car- 
rying out all that was said in the Bible: 'Leave all 
things and follow me.' But little by little his sympa- 
thy for others became contagious ; my sympathy was 
aroused ; seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his 
earnestness, and how he went quietly about his busi- 
ness, I was converted by him, although he had not 
tried to do it. How sad that the good old man should 
have died so soon ! " 

0«ne of the most remarkable occurrences of modern 
times was the Berlin Conference which -met in 1884, to 
determine the constitution of the Congo Free State. 
King Leopold of Belgium, whose heart had been 
turned in the direction of neglected Africa by the death 
of a beloved son, and who had thus been led to contri- 
bute annually a princely sum for its advancement, has 
been a leader in the great work for that land. At the 
Berlin Conference, under the presidency of Prince Bis- 
marck, fifteen nations assembled by their representa- 
tives, and formed the " International Association of the 
Congo." Article YI. contains the most Christian part 
of this noble declaration . "All the powers exercising 



2GS THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

sovereign rights, or having influence in the said terri- 
tories, undertake to watch over the preservation of the 
native races and the amelioration of the moral and ma- 
terial conditions of their existence, and to cooperate in 
the suppression of slavery, and, above all, of the slave- 
trade ; they will protect and encourage, without dis- 
tinction of nationality or creed, all institutions and 
enterprises — religious, scientific, or charitable— estab- 
lished and organized for these objects, or tending to 
educate the natives, and lead them to understand and 
appreciate the advantages of civilization ; Christian 
missionaries, men of science, explorers and their es- 
corts and collections, to be equally the object of spe- 
cial protection. Liberty of conscience and religious 
toleration are expressly guaranteed to the natives, as 
well as to the inhabitants and foreigners. The free 
and public exercise of every creed, the right to erect 
religious buildings, and to organize missions belonging 
to every creed, shall be subject to no restriction or 
impediment whatever." 

And which were the nations entering into this most 
remarkable compact for civil and religious freedom ? 
Not only Protestant powers, like the United States, 
Great Britain, Prussia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 
but the Greek Church, as represented by Russia ; the 
Papal church, as represented by Austria, Belgium, 
Spain, Portugal, Prance, and Italy , and even the Mos- 
lem power, as represented by Turkey ! Was ever such 
a scene witnessed before in the history of the world ? 
Africa can now be said to be on the threshold of a 
great reform. The work will be long and arduous, but 
the responsibility of its evangelization has been laid 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 269 

upon the Christian church. The voice of God is call- 
ing all his servants to the annexation of this new terri- 
tory to the dominions of his Son. Will the church 
prove disobedient to the heavenly command ? We trow 
not. 

But what about the countries professing the pseudo- 
christianity of Rome ? In the first place, there are no 
great and influential Roman Catholic powers among 
the nations. Protestant England, Germany, and the 
United States are to the world now what, in the earlier 
centuries, were Spain, Portugal, Austria, and France. 
The power of the papacy has so far declined as to be 
almost unfelt in international politics. Spain is its 
most faithful daughter, and of what account is Spain 
in the affairs of the world? Holding practically the 
whole of the New World, and half of the Old at first, 
she now has but a fragment of America left, and only 
her own proper territory in Europe. And Protestant 
missions are making progress in Spain. It is said, 
that the demand for Bibles by Spaniards can only 
with great difficulty be met. 

In Italy the pope is, or pretends to be, a prisoner in 
his palace, and the nation moving forward under a de- 
servedly popular king, laughs at his claims for temporal 
power. In Borne itself, where but a little while ago 
8. Bible was not allowed, religion is now free, and 
in the Eternal City there are twenty-two Protestant 
churches. 

Dr. A. T. Pierson, in his remarkable book, The 
Crisis of Missions, in speaking of the changes that have 
taken place, and that are still going forward in Europe, 
says : " The balance of power is reversed since 1789. At 



270 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

the period of the Reformation Spain and Portugal and 
Austria were the dominant powers in Europe. Spain, 
that made England quake at the terrors of her 'In- 
vincible Armada,' had three times, and some say six 
times, the population of England ; now England, after 
colonizing India, America, and Australia, has twice the 
population of Spain. During fifty years past, England 
has gained 119 per cent. ; Prussia, 72 ; Austria, 27 ; 
Erance, 12 ; or, taking excess of births over deaths, if 
Erance be represented by 1, Austria will be repre- 
sented by 3, Russia by 5 ; but Prussia by 6, and Britain 
by 8 ! In 1825, Protestant population was to Papal as 
3 to 13, and in 1875 as 1 to 3. Savonarola's dying cry 
was, ' O Italy, I warn thee that only Christ can save 
thee ! The time for the Holy Ghost has not come, but 
it will!' What if that martyr of Ferrara could have 
seen Italy's history from 18-48 until now! Where in 
1866 a Protestant preacher was expelled for preach- 
ing, twenty years later Leo XIII. says to his cardinals, 
1 With deep regret and profound anguish we behold the 
impiety with which Protestants freely and with impu- 
nity propagate their heretical doctrines, and attack the 
most august and sacred doctrines of our holy religion, 
even here at Rome, the centre of the faith and the zeal 
of the universal and infallible teacher of the church!'" 
In Erance the Reformed Church now, after centuries 
of inhuman persecutions, is free to carry on its great 
work, and the McAU Mission, one of the most remarka- 
ble religious movements of modern times, is drawing 
multitudes to Christ in many of the largest cities. The 
Papal countries of the western hemisphere are rife with 



THE AGE OF MISSIONS. 271 

Protestant missions, and from Mexico, Brazil and other 
nations come blessed news of Christian conquest. 

To sum up, and without going further into particu- 
lars with regard to smaller countries, it may be boldly 
stated that the world is open to Christian missions. 
God has turned and overturned until the field is all 
ready, white to the harvest. What does it mean ? It 
is the voice of God in history calling his people to con- 
secrate themselves and all their substance to the long- 
neglected duty for which the church is founded on 
earth. 

Really the church seems to feel its responsibility, 
and shows signs of addressing itself earnestly to the 
work of evangelizing the world. 



CHAPTEK XXYI. 

The Church's Task. 

THEEE are two subjects of legitimate enquiry 
which may engage the attention of the human 
mind. They are truth and duty — what is the truth 
concerning man, the universe and God, and what Is 
man's duty to himself, his fellow-man and his Maker. 
In the sphere of religion the great source of know- 
ledge is the Bible. " The Scriptures principally teach 
what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty 
God requires of man." The first question is as to what 
we must believe, and the second what we must do. 

What must I do? is answered by every man's life. 
The answers vary beyond computation in forms ; there 
are but two answers in substance or principle. Some 
men strive for wealth, others for fame, others still for 
pleasure. Their lives agree in saying man's chief end 
is to glorify himself ; they differ as to the method of 
doing it. They worship in a great temple, and before 
one altar and one idol — self ; all their lives they bring 
as a sacrifice to this god. "We deduce from the Scrip- 
tures another answer — " man's chief end is to glorify 
God and enjoy him." This brings our lives to a holier 
shrine, and there they attain their highest meaning and 
development. 

How shall we glorify God and enjoy him ? How 
shall the individual, and how shall the church ? What 

272 



the church's task. 273 

is the individual's task, and what the task of the whole 
organized body of the redeemed on earth ? It is the 
same as the Master's—" to seek and to save that which 
was lost." He leads and we follow. When he calls a 
man it is for this work, and when he calls and organ- 
izes a church there is no difference. In the salvation 
of the lost, Christ has his part to do, and we have ours. 
He had to die as a substitute for sinners. We have 
no atonement to make, though the performance of our 
duty entails self-sacrifice, which brings us into a holy 
co-partnership with him who gave himself for others. 

" To seek and to save that which is lost" may be 
phrased differently, and we may say that the church's 
task is to bring the world into subjection to Jesus of 
Nazareth. In the second Psalm we read that the Fa- 
ther commanded his Son, "Ask of me, and I shall give 
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession." It is a sub- 
lime disclosure of divine operations in the awful majesty 
of the adorable Trinity, the eternal Son bending his 
knee in worship before the Father at his own behest, 
asking the gift of a lost and ruined world. This was 
realized doubtless not only in the midst of the heavenly 
court, but also on the earth itself, where, under the 
silent stars, "he went up into a mountain apart to 
pray; and when the evening was come he was there 
alone." It will be remembered that the angel who an- 
nounced to Mary the glorious dignity to which she had 
been called— to be the mother of Jesus — declared that 
" of his kingdom there should be no end." At the 
other end of time John, by revelation on Patmos, hears 
another angel saying, " The kingdoms of this world are 



274 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, 
and he shall reign for ever." This shows us what was 
the nature of Christ's office. He was to be a univer- 
sal King. The faith of the penitent thief on the cross 
saw the consummation, and anticipated it as he prayed, 
" Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy king- 
dom." 

Well, he made a good beginning, but it seemed like 
little more. He gathered a few followers ; he fulfilled 
the terms of his covenant with the Father by dying for 
sinners ; he performed many startling miracles, and at 
last himself arose from the tomb triumphant over death 
and hell. But this was only a beginning ; and just at 
the moment when it seemed most opportune to begin 
a career of world-wide conquest, he suddenly with- 
draws from the field as a visible person. What then ? 
What means are left for the accomplishment of his 
vast designs ? What and who are left to conquer the 
world for the King ? No visible agency but the church. 
"Go ye into all the world." What a spectacle ! a lit- 
tle band of perhaps five hundred men and women, un- 
educated, uninfluential, poor, timid, ready to fly at the 
rustle of a leaf, and Christ committing to them the 
revolution and subjugation of a world ! " Go ye " was 
not said to angels. He could have commanded them, 
and earth would have doubled its population in a mo- 
ment by a flood of immigration from the skies. There 
would have been not simply one shining messenger on 
every hill and plain, under every icy cliff and plumy 
palm, but there would have been a celestial preacher to 
each mortal, and the work have been done by mercy 
or by wrath, between two suns. But no ; Christ was a 



the church's task. 275 

man, as well as God, and lie reserved for his race the 
honor of the work. The world was saved by the death 
of a God-man, and by men it shonld be conquered. Pi- 
late wrote over Christ's head upon the cross the words, 
"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," but only in 
derision. Out of this sarcasm was to emerge a gleam 
of prophetic light, and at last over the cross of Christ, 
not indeed planted among the stones of Golgotha, but 
emblazoned on the dome of heaven, were to be in- 
scribed the words of a wider sovereignty, for time it- 
self was going to write him King of kings and univer- 
sal Lord. 

If the church is to conquer the world, how is she to 
do it ? The answer is not far to seek : by " preaching 
the gospel to every creature." That is all; and here 
is another surprise, for it seems utterly insufficient. If 
it had been by organized military force, or by the 
might of philosophy, or the power of art in architec- 
ture, eloquence or music, there would have seemed to 
be some reasonableness in it. But to speak of chang- 
ing a world by telling the story of a man claiming to 
be God, who died at the hands of his enemies, and 
who his friends claimed to have risen from the dead, 
seemed "to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the 
Greeks foolishness." It was little better than blowing 
rams' horns about the walls of Jericho while the Canaan- 
ites sat on their battlements and laughed. Reasonable 
or unreasonable, this is the church's only instrument. 
She has sometimes resorted to arms, but those who 
take the sword always perish by the sword. Again 
and again have ministers preached another gospel, or 
science, or poetry, or human eloquence, or politics ; but 
24 



276 THE VOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

always to fail. It is reasonable to obey our divine 
Lord, no matter what lie commands, and faithful obe- 
dience has never failed of ultimate success. " I am 
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," said the greatest 
of the apostles, nor should any man be, for it is "the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; 
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 

We must not, however, suppose that there is a 
strange, mysterious power about the gospel, a sort of 
divine necromancy. There is no power in the gospel 
by itself. The power is in a living and ever-present 
person. After declaring " all power is given unto me 
in heaven and on earth," and commanding us to 
" preach the gospel to every creature," he discloses 
the secret of success by adding, " And lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." The 
hope of the church is in the constant presence and 
blessing of Christ. He stands by the minister who 
preaches his gospel in the great church of a metropo- 
lis, and by the lonely missionary on a foreign shore ; 
by the Sunday-school teacher or mother teaching little 
children the story of the cross ; and by those who, fol- 
lowing the wanderers from virtue and honesty, that 
have dropped almost out of the thought of the world, 
tell to the outcast and the dying the glad tidings of 
atoning blood and pardon for sin. Christ, invisible to 
the world, but recognized by our faith, standing in the 
midst of his church, is the true conception of the work 
and progress of redemption. 

If the Divine Saviour is always with his church, 
what is he there to do? He is there to execute his 
" office as a King, in subduing us to himself, in ruling 



the church's task. 277 

and defending us, and in restraining and conquering 
all his and our enemies." Christ rules the world. He 
walks the waves of revolution as he trod the crested 
billows of the Galilean sea in ancient times. He will 
turn and overturn until he shall have worked out his 
vast designs,- and all nations shall call him blessed; 
but in what way will he change the world ? Candidly, 
the preached word is not sufficient alone. It would be 
like an oration in a grave-yard, or a psalm chanted 
over a sepulchre of the dead. "While the church 
preaches the gospel to men, Christ is present to bap- 
tize them with the Holy Ghost. This is the method 
of resuscitation. Mankind are dead in trespasses and 
sins, and they cannot accept Christ ; they can do no- 
thing good until they receive the electric touch of the 
Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Ghost has 
always been present, but not so powerfully as since the 
ascension of our Lord. All through the Old Testa- 
ment the doming of the new dispensation is described 
as a time for pouring out the Spirit upon all flesh. 
There are two lines of prophecy: a crimson line of 
salvation by the atoning blood of Christ, and a silver 
line of baptismal life. There is such a thing as bap- 
tismal regeneration ; or, rather, there is no regeneration 
without baptism. But it is not by water ; that is the 
symbol. John the Baptist said, " I indeed baptize you 
with water unto repentance ; but he that cometh after 
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire." Christ never baptized with water; it is 
distinctly stated that "Jesus baptized not, but his dis- 
ciples." There would seem to be a great impropriety 



278 THE YOICE OF GOD IN HISTORY. 

in his baptizing with a symbol; his was to baptize 
with what was symbolized. 

At the beginning of time the Holy Spirit brooded 
npon the face of chaos, and brought into it life, with 
all its myriad forms of beauty. He inspired the Scrip- 
tures, for "holy men of old spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost." The thoughts and words were 
his. He used men to express them, and they took a 
certain human cast, but they were still divine. The 
tides that come in from the ocean take on the forms of 
the shore, but they are all sea still ; and so the divine 
tide of truth that came to the minds of the prophets 
was all divine, though it took a certain humanness of 
form. And as to the forms of the shore, it is a well 
known fact that the ocean makes its own shores; so 
God prepared by his providence the peculiar minds 
through which his truth was to come. Christ's bodj- 
and human soul were the creation of the Holy Ghost. 
He was conceived by him. Christ cast out„devils and 
performed his miracles by his power ; not that he could 
not have done it unaided, but because the Third Per- 
son of the Trinity had for his function to create life, 
and to renew and restore it ; so Jesus would not set 
aside, but rather honor, his office. Christ himself was 
raised up by the power of the Spirit after he had been 
laid in the tomb. 

The divine expediency of Christ's departure with his 
bodily presence was manifest at Pentecost: "I will 
send him (the Holy Ghost) unto you from the Father." 
Here is the type of New Testament history — Peter 
preaching the gospel, and Christ present baptizing 
with the Holy Ghost and fire. The result was three 



the church's task. 279 

thousand conversions in one day. This, then, is the 
church's hope — the presence of Christ to baptize men 
with the Holy Spirit. The preaching of the word, and 
even the cross itself, would be all in vain without his 
work. 

Some years ago the writer was travelling, in company 
with a few friends, to see Mont Blanc, that monarch 
of European peaks. We arrived at night, and could 
see no massive snowy dome; but next morning the 
sun arose, and by a baptism of fire enkindled the 
world with light, which kissed the icy pinnacles to 
flame. The truths of redemption alone are like the 
mountain of snow at night ; but if Christ baptize his 
word and the people with the Holy Ghost, the glorious 
day comes on, and light fills all the universe, the pre- 
sent, the past, and the mighty future ; and the cross, 
which stands on high, burns with the light of mercy, 
and flashes into eternity the lustrous prophecy of eter- 
nal life. 

Christ in his own way is bringing the world into 
subjection to himself, and the evolution of his great 
plans is called providence. This brief sketch of Chris- 
tianity is intended to show a Divine Ruler in the affairs 
of men, especially of the church ; and that the utter- 
ance of the will and authority of Christ our King is 
the voice of God in history. " These things are writ- 
ten that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God; and that believing ye might have life 
through his name." 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Africa, Missions in, 266 

Alva, Duke of 174 

Alexander the Great, 28 

Anthony, 59 - 

Antipater, 34 

Arius, 25 

Armada, Spanish, 173 

Athanasius, 25 

Aurelius Augustine 65 

Beatoun 164 

Berlin Conference, 267 

Bentevoglio, 178 

Beza, 140 

Bloody Mary, 182, 168 

Bothwell Bridge, 206 

Book of Common Prayer,. 231, 168 

Bora, Catherine von, 128 

Brognier, 116 

Bures, Ideletto de, 138 

Calvin, 132 

Cajetan, 122 

Catherine de Medici, 148 

Charlemagne, 50 

Charles I., 188 

Charles V., 124 

Charles IX 148 

China, Missions in, 262 

Churchship, 244 

Coligny,., „ 147 



Page. 

Congo Free State, 267 

Conquest of the Boman World 

for Christ, 18 

Constantine's Conversion, ...... 24 

Covenanters, 200 

Crisis of Missions, 269 

Cromwell, 190 

Crusades, 87 

Decretals of Isadore, 51 

Directory of "Worship, 241 

Disestablishment, 228 

Drake, Sir Francis, 171 

East India Company, 258 

Eck, 122 

Edward III., 105 

Edward VI., 167 

Edwards, Sir Herbert, 260 

Egmont, 160 

Elizabeth, Queen, 163 

Erasmus, 130 

Essenes, 56 

Eternal Generation, 251 

Farel, 137 

Fathers of the Church, 22 

Floras, , 36 

Francis I., 136 

French Liturgy, 237 

Frere, Sir Bartle, 260 

From Paradise to Calvary, 13 



281 



282 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Geddes, Jennie 202 

Gerard, 162 

Gibbon's Five Causes, „. 20 

Gracey, Dr. J. T., ....264 

Hanover, Presbytery of, 228 

Hampden, 192 

Henderson, Alex., 203 

Henry IV., 149 

Herod, 34 

Heroes of Holland, 153 

Hildebrand, 53 

Horn, Count,. 160 

Huguenots, 143 

Huss, 110 

Hyrcanos, 32 

India, Missions in, 259 

Inland Mission, China, 263 

Inquisition and the Jews, 38 

Institutes of Christian Reli- 
gion, 135 

Israel, 27 

James I., , 188 

James II, 206 

Japan, Missions in, 265 

Jewish Creed, 42 

Jews, Number in the World, ... 42 

Josephus, 36 

Knox, John, 164, 182 

Knox's Prayer Book, 241 

Laud, 188 

Lefevre d'Etaples, . .• ,.144 

Leopold, King, 267 

Liturgies and Protestantism, ...230 

Livingstone, 266 

Lord's Supper, 129 

Louis XVI, 151 

Luther, 117 

McAll Mission, , 270 

Maccabees, 31 

Maimonides, 41 



Page. 
Margaret of Parma, . .0.0=0,0. ....159 

Major, 166 

Marot, 144 

Mary, Queen of Scots, .....170 

Mariamne, . 34 

Maurice, 162 

Muir, Sir William 260 

Melanchthon, 130 

Miltitz, 122 

Milton, 197 

Missions, The Age of,. .......o... 256 

Mohammed 76 

Methodists, 208 

Monasticism, 56 

Morrison, Eobert, 263 

Mortoun, Earl, .172 

National Covenant, 202 

Nicene Council, 23 

Pelagius, 73 

Pepin, 49 

Perry, Commodore, 265 

Peter the Hermit, 88 

Philip II., ..158, 174 

Photius, 52 

Puritans, 181 

Ptenan, 140 

Rise of the Papal Empire, 44 

Saladin, 94 

Salome, 32 

Septuagint, 29 

Servetus, 141 

Severe Tracts, .128 

Solemn League and Covenant, . 204 

Stanley, H. M., ........266 

St. Bartholomew's Day, 148 

Taylor, J. Hudson, 263 

Temple, Sir Richard, 260 

Tetzel, 120 

The Church's Task, .....272 

Theophany, .250 



INDEX. 



283 



Page. 

Thirty-nine Articles, 1 68 

Titus, . ... 36 

Trent, Council of , 54 

United States, Religion Estab- 
lished in, 218 

Utrecht 161 

Vespasian, 36 

Wartburg, 126 

Wesley, John, 208 



Page. 

Westminster Assembly, 204 

Whitefield, George, 214 

Whitgift, 185 

Wickliffe, 102 

William the Silent, 162 

Wishart, 164 

Worms, Diet of, 125 

Xavier, Francis, 264 















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